Story One- Reckless Love: Unconditional Love
By: Daniel Sherwood
I remember when I was young that me and my father playing catch and how everyone was happy. It was a time when love, understanding, and acceptance ruled the nation. It was a time when people had put aside their own personal beliefs and love each other as a human being. A time when people treated people like people. All that changed in an instant the past three years have been hell for anyone different than what the leaders thought was ideal. It started off with the Muslim community, the fear of their religion, the fear of their culture.
It’s 2055 and still nothing has changed for the better. Correction nothing changed until the day that I came home from the war. I had an encounter so powerful that it changed my life- it saved me from the darkness taking over me.
In order to fully understand me and the recent events that I have had to endured. I need to start at the point of when my world came crashing down all around me. I need to start the day that my parents ended their most beloved friendship because he was gay.
It was a warm summer day in July, it was mid- July. I was outside playing catch with my father, Adrian. My mother came outside- my father had just thrown the ball. My mother came out in tears and I can remember her telling my father that the friend of the family- Josh- had been fired because he was gay. Then I remember my father saying at how disappointed he was and I could see the anger and the hatred in his eyes. My father had used a lot of words that I am not going to repeat because of dehumanize they are. And I should know because he used those same words when I came out. I’m getting ahead of myself though.
I was six years old on that warm summer day in July. A six-year-old shouldn’t have to see what evil, hatred and bigotry looks like. They shouldn’t be exposed to a lot of things but they are.
Fast forward to my freshman year in high school, I started noticing that I was different than most of my friends. I was acting differently than them and I realize that I wasn’t attracted to girls like they were. That’s what scared me- it scared me because of my parents, because of their beliefs and the fact that they ended a life-long friendship with someone that was gay. That’s something that is always going to stay with me- it’s hard to explain to someone who doesn’t understand.
I was dating this girl named Allie- I wanted to hide who I was from my parents and this was the only way that I knew how. Don’t get me wrong Allie was a very attractive young woman- but I wasn’t attracted to her like I was with guys. My parents loved Allie- she was an amazing young woman of God that I honestly did- and still do love. But I knew that I couldn’t make it work. My parents love her- they had her over for dinner every chance that they got. We even went to church together.
One night in the summer after my freshman year in high school I had to tell her about me and who I was. We were out starring at the stars on the high school football field and she asked, “Tyler, please don’t be offended by me asking this. But are you gay?” In that moment, I was scared. I wanted to tell her that I was struggling and that I wanted to overcome this disease. I also wanted to tell her that I wanted tell my parents but that I was scared. Then something that I never thought possible in my world would happened- happened. “God loves you unconditionally and I love you.” I started to cry, I was flooded with emotion that I never thought possible. “Your parents should know- even if they will disown you.” She knew that I was scared to tell them.
