Oh yeah...one more thing.

In a couple weeks almost 50 churches in Cincinnati are going on a spiritual journey. Part of said journey is to join a small group of folks and meet weekly (think book/wine club). So I woke up yesterday feeling extravertish. I was inspired by a friend over at Crossroads who joined a group of strangers in hopes of meeting some people. So I looked into the guys groups listed on Crossroads' website. The whole thing felt very strange, like a dating service or something. I wanted to quit numerous times. Basically, you read a description of the group and if you like what you read you email them and say, "hey, i like you. do you like me?"

One of the groups that sounded intriguing was one that said they were into sports. Me. They meet in Mt. Adams. I have neighborhood envy of Mt. Adams. We're off to a good start. Then they said, "we're looking to reach out to dudes in our city." Something about that didn't fit my style. I use the word, "dudes" in the same way I use, "bros." So I passed on that group. I found another that seemed more my style and sent them a cyber-note and asked them to check yes or no.

Woke up today feeling self-conscious about the whole thing. I went back to the site and looked at the groups again. The Mt. Adams sports fans updated their listing. They added this sentence: "This group is for gay / bi men who view church as an important part of their life." Fairly important sentence I think.

I'm not writing this to make judgements or anything weird like that. I LOVE that this group exists. My point is that I just don't meet that criteria and it seems like pretty important criteria to mention from the get go. It would be like if these sports fans in Mt. Adams forgot to mention that Star Trek is a huge part of their life. I don't have any problem with Star Trek. Some of my really good friends are huge into the Star Trek. It's just not my thing. So if I showed up to a group that forgot to tell me they go to the conventions, have the dolls, etc. there would be a disconnect between us from the start.

Or let's say that it doesn't come up the first meeting. We talk about the weather in Mt. Adams and the Bengals. But, they would probably assume that I too love Star Trek, right? Why else would I be there? So, things go well and they invite me over to watch movies. So I assume they're going to pop in Jerry Maguire, Tin Cup, Major League. They're the sports fans from Mt. Adams. I may even wear my Bearcats hat to show them my sports fandom. So I roll in and instead of rocking Ocho Cinco jerseys they're all wearing Spok shirts and watching The Wrath of Khan. Not that there's anything wrong with Khan. I was just expecting Dorn.