The story of St Valentine is an ancient but to oft untold tale of the nature of marriage. Valentine was an early catholic priest, one who was an active advocate for marriage. The Roman Empire was at war with barbarians from the north, and after so long besieged, the formerly invincible roman army was IN shambles. The emperor, in an attempt to revive his army issued a draft. Part of the declaration stated that men of age were not to marry for a certain time; hoping to remove ties of men to life and home. St valentine, in defiance of the letter of this order still continued to perform marriage ceremonies. Understanding that marriage is not a state establishment. Thus he, under penalty of death, began a trend which isn't unheard of in modern, secularized ideas of marriage.
Valentine created moral , illegal marriages. Is there such a thing heard of in this time? Think of it for a moment. American divorce rates prove that few if any are denied right to marry. This being the case, how can any marriage be illegal? Could the government , as it did in valentine’s time.
As said before valentine understood that the government has no jurisdiction over marriage whatsoever. With a 50% divorce rate, clearly something is not working in the current method of marriage. If marriage is not a state institution, then where does it gain its sanctity? As a primary source of family, the connection and involvement marriage and family have one with another cannot be ignored. Traditionally, whether Christian, religious, or ignorant, even in an overwhelmingly secular culture, the idea of a family with single parents, divorce, and cohabiting are still generally considered taboo. The idea of marriage before and with family is irrevocably engrained into the minds of culture. By that token, the idea of marriage as an instituting of family, more than government is not an unreasonable idea. Indeed, because of the powerful relationship between marriage and family....
The commonly accepted terms of marriage include a government issued marriage license, filed with the state, usually accompanied with a blood test. The understood idea behind licensing marriage is to add some measure of legitimacy or officially to the union. Logically it is not foolish to believe that giving a marriage officially will reinforce the vows made in forming that union. If legitimacy through licensing is designed to strengthen a bond, then again the issue of high divorce rates must be addressed.
Though perhaps not necessarily the sole reason of modern divorce, the problem is the preventative measure. If state granted marriage, or "legal marriage" is to keep the vows strong, then those vows are given to the state. If the government writes the contract, then the government defines the terms. If vows are made under the authority of the government, then, legally those vows can be revoked by the govt. And because anyone cam obtain government approved marriage, anyone can petition the government for severance.
St. Valentine did not marry his parishioners under any government authority, but under the authority of family and the church, in defiance of the govt. However, without the state protected vows, what makes the marriage substantial? under what authority is the union made? It cannot be so free of a union that any two ( or potentially more) can say " we are married" with no oversight at all. That issue speaks to a much deeper issue of modern society. So many citizens of the world are falling into a common and dangerous delusion, that the government CAN provide legal legitimacy for all matters. When it is said that marriage, being a. Institution of family and church, cannot be justified by any other authority than those two, it must be understood that the misery institution of family, so weakens by generations of government usurping it's power, is a far greater and stronger authority than it is given right to.
Government must sustain government, family must sustain family. If the government is given right to grant marriage, it is good for government to maintain that power. Family, when granted it's proper right to create and sustain marriages , in order to maintain itself, must hold marriages to a higher standard, and so will not grant divorces as easily or swiftly as government does. Family has to strengthen its institution, by creating true, stronger marriages , rather than the flippant abuses of love that government allows. Under that authority and necessity, family should and will give the legitimacy and strength to prevent simply granted divorce.
It being understood that it is not the place of government to legitimize marriage, then understand what I mean when I say that I do not support any legislation or amendment banning gay marriage. If government is given right to ban one form of marriage , it can unleash a Pandora’s box of usurpations. Again, in a measure of self-preservation, under family authority would actively avoid and even oppose such kind of destructive, unproductive marriage.
Marriage is not an institute established by state, but treated as such becomes a force whose power is being misdirected and depleted. What wonder is it that family is losing all structural integrity
Segment II: Reclamation
"You'll be on your way up!, you'll be seeing great sights!, you'll join the high fliers who soar to high heights."
“everybody does annoying things....but you tell yourself to suck it up, because you do annoying things too, and plus, it's usually you that's the problem”
I urge you to please notice when you are happy,
and exclaim or murmur or think at some point,
"If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."
You're one of the many things that make me face the day, I'm so glad you're here with me. It's not your fault that you're in pain, I just can't explain what you mean to me. Meant what I said, meant what I did, it's all for you.
How could you know just what you did? So full of faith yet so full of doubt. Time and time again you said don't be afraid. "If you believe you can do it." The only voice I want to hear is yours.
I had to keep reminding myself that I’d made my choice, and I wasn’t going back on it. I would just hold on to the faith that, in the end, the desire would win out over the others. And what was my other choice---to cut him out of my life? Intolerable.
More than anything, I'm scared of letting down this front I have and laying my soul bare to the world. But when I think about you standing by my side, I wonder if it won't be so hard after all, and I know it would be worth it.
I hope that someday, somebody wants to hold you for twenty minutes straight,
and that's all they do. They don't pull away. They don't look at your face.
They don't try to kiss you. All they do is wrap you up in their arms,
without an ounce of selfishness in it.
Segment III: Seconds
http://12seconds.tv/channel/Lifesquestion
Segment IV: Backstory
My life has not really been in my control for years. I was fourteen when my mom bought a business and schooling, though not planned on my own, was no lover overseen by my parents, and I became a self educated young man. I Learned very quickly, as both of my siblings left home, that I could run the house. Granted not monetarily nor with the same understanding as an adult, but I quickly learned to cook and clean and maintain the household and for my part, enjoyed doing it. It is odd that I enjoy it so, most young men don’t enjoy cleaning and food preparation the way I have learned too.
By the time I became used to this structure, however, in the same torrent in which I had been abandoned for household solitude, my siblings returned. With hem, any peace and security, or moreover control that I had over my own world was removed from me. The situations for the rebounding older siblings were stressful enough as it is, the situations that followed their return literally made my hair start falling out.
I got my second paying job in March of 2007, and it was quickly followed up b another, reverberative job from my internship with SSI. By the following year I was taking my first round of simplistic college courses, and still dealing with the fallout of the stress filled home that I went to. I began dreaming nightly in metaphoric images reflecting how truly angry, sad, and unhappy I was. I had already began to make deeper mistakes that would in the end tear my young heart apart.
In an incomplete, emotional, and empty place I entered summer 2008. My family had reached a certain level of plateau with their internal anger, and strife caused by the mistakes of one of my siblings. Pain that could not be expressed any other way was dealt to me to handle, and try as I might, I was unable to keep from letting it get to me. It was at that point that I began to see a deeper structure to the things going on inside me; that is the hate I had for myself. I didn’t like anything I was, which was understandable.
The enjoyment I found in cleaning, and the pains I took to keep my family’s house stopped being enough. My parents are very adept at finding something you do wrong. Every week I had a new problem that I had to overcome, though in the minds of my parents they were always the same problem, even though the application of that problem was not often replicated.
I was average or below average in nearly every way, and that just wasn’t enough, not after having such a clear vision of the future as I had been given at SSI my first year. I needed more and wanted more. I could have had more, but now was so stick in a broke place that getting out of it was not something I alone was capable of. I understand that I was supposed to go to God, most people don’t think that I did, but that part of the nightly prayers that preluded my dreams was a cry for the help of God to lift me out of a hole I was not strong enough to survive. But alas I was still there.
With such a heart, I found something that healed me. It filled me with hope and joy that I had not ever felt before. It gave me strength, and made me more again. But what I thought was healing me completely was only a drug. I quickly became addicted to the love that I felt and overdosed on something that I never should have touched. All at once I was forced to face the aftermath of the overdose, as well as the withdrawal from having my drug forcibly removed from my life.
The depression that set in was only partially driven by the loss of my drug, which burned and tore at me so, but more so it was because, whatever the means, I had felt partially whole again. Whole in a way I had not felt in three years. And I had failed, and now I was lower than ever. It took the work of an amazing family to even maintain my low existence.
A year later, people tell me frequently that I have changed. That I am better in some way or another. Some do anyways. I still fail my parents, both legitimately and because they seek for a “pattern of irresponsibility”. I still am a second class student, and have been passed over for the only colleges I desire to go to. I think what everyone else sees as change, I see as my experience, teaching me to shift the weight of a burden I cant get rid of, only to bear it more easily. All the fear, anger, pain, and sadness I have had for years still hovers about me, like an old scent.
I am frantically searching for a job, while watching three years worth of savings disappear from my bank account. Even as I spend out of necessity and love, I have greater plan for the funds I no longer an able to earn. Two internships, one nearing its end, with work piling up that has become impossible to complete; the other starting with no clear guidelines as to what is needed of me, and both weighting heavily on my mind and schedule. The classes I take in “college” if you can call what I am in that, are simple enough, but with low funding, gas and parking fees, as well as a system of parking payment that I am unable to use to its fullest extent, I find every trip to campus a pain, and unwanted challenge.
A group of friends who have sustained me well over the past month, waver with internal issues, that I am unable o fix, no matter how responsible I feel for the health of our group. I am struggling to finish a second year of Spanish before the week is out so as to apply it to a high school transcripts for a second shot at the school I desire admission to. Each weekend is quickly filling up for the next month or more, and I feel that my time is being depleted.
My Life has not been in my control for many years. I don’t want true control over it because I know I would fail if I ran my own life completely. But after four years for restless sleeping and living without calm for more than a week, I want peace. So badly I want one are of my life to run smoothly without question or confusion, drama or annoyance.
Its just a temporary want. Who knows where I will be in a month
Segment V: Script
CHARACTERS:
Jacob Maxwell: Josh
Caitlyn Cale: Caedy
Crystol Carter: Chelsea
Warm Blood (codename): Zeke
Nicholas Pride: Nathan
Skyla Rothman: Rosie
Dr. Daniel Nathan Henry: Donny
ACT ONE
FADE IN:
INT. LIBRARY - DAY
PAN ACROSS A DESK.
TEXT: SEATTLE JUNE 9 3:55 PM ZULU
A library table, piled high with books, a person reading one is otherwise unseen amid the mess.
SFX: Phone ringing.
DANIEL * Frustrated sigh*
Phone keeps ringing, still being ignored by the still obscured Daniel. Phone rings a few more times before a shuffle is heard and he answers.
DANIEL (CONT'D) What? *Exasperated.
OFFICAL *Voice over the phone sounds official and important* Dr. Henry?
DANIEL *Sounding Distracted* Yes?
OFFICAL I’m calling on be half of a private organization of individuals working together for a sole purpose. We need your help, Sir, its of global importance and urgency.
CLOSE UP ON A BOOK AS DANIEL’S HAND TURNS A PAGE.
DANIEL *Still disaffected* Why me?
OFFICAL We require your... unique abilities for reasons we would prefer not be stated on an unsecured line.... Doctor... The world is in peril. It needs you.
LONG PAUSE
DANIEL But I’m reading a book right now....
FADE OUT.
FADE IN:
HEADQUARTERS - DAY
JACOB approaches headquarters, other vehicles (possibly a motorcycle) parked around. Approaches door, NICHOLAS opens before he knocks
NICHOLAS Welcome, Jacob. *turns to lead into the house* you are nearly our last guest
JACOB looks around the sitting area. BLOOD sits in front of a table, which is layered with knives and disassembled firearms. CRYSTOL and CAITLYN sit near each other on a couch. Karen looks at Jacob, somewhat curious. SKYLA, standing near the door, moves to Nicholas’s side.
NICHOLAS (CONT'D) Friends, allow me to introduce Jacob Maxwell, College Student from Chicago. He will be serving as a backup for any of our roles, should any of us become incapable.
JACOB *cutting Nicholas off* Um, Excuse me.
EVERYONE looks at Jacob, silently
JACOB (CONT’D) I wasn’t told much about... anything. *more to Nicolas* Who are you? How do you know who I am.
NICHOLAS *sigh* given a moment I would have explained myself. My Name is Nicholas Pride. As far as how I know you, As I was the first to arrive, I tool the liberty of familiarizing myself with these, *Hands Jacob a folder, similar to ones each of the others have near their person* There is a detailed profile on each of us in there.
JACOB What is this?
CAITLYN Our Mission Dossier.
JACOB *pause* Our what? *Caitlyn sighs* I’m really sorry. I really have no idea what’s going on here.
BLOOD What do you know? How did you get here?
JACOB I Got a call a few weeks ago. The man told me about a group of people working on a project of some kind, sounded important. The told me how to get here and asked me to volunteer, stressing the urgency of my involvement.
BLOOD Volunteer!? I was promised Half a mill for this job.
CRYSTOL We are all here by different means for different reasons, Blood. If yours is money, I’m sure you’ll get it.
NICHOLAS The Group your informant told you about is called the Secret Superhuman Initiative. All of us, save you, have been a part of SSI before, for one mission or another. I have been a part of every gathering for several years. I’ve been here longer than the Furniture. As the name might suggest, every SSI alumni retains some sort of superhuman gift.
JACOB Then why am I here? I don’t have any superpower.
NICHOLAS Well the very fact that you are here means that you do. Though according to your dossier you have a similar acquaintance with a few active members. A Mr.Sadasivan?
KAREN, CRYSTOL, and SKYLA, nod.
JACOB SADASIVAN Was an upperclassman at School. Several of you know him? * Caitlyn Crystol and Skyla nod* What is the project I was told about?
SKYLA We were just starting to over that. The files we have been given have instructions to build some sort of device. *looks through the papers in the file* I have no idea what these blueprint-things are supposed to be of, but then again I am not the initiative's tech specialist.
NICHOLAS Dr. Henry has yet to arrive.
BLOOD He isn’t coming.
CRYSTOL Why not?
BLOOD I called him a few days ago, he said he doesn't really care what we're doing, just that he wants to finish baking his pie.
JACOB Pie?
KAREN *Ignoring Jacobs question* So can anyone tell us what we are supposed to be building? I’m not going to waste my time building some contraption without knowing what it’s supposed to do.
BLOOD *looking through the papers intently* I’ve seen similar designs for timer-set bombs, only it isn’t asking for a explosive system, more of a dispersal system, to spread some sore or chemical across a rather wide area, rather than explosion or shockwave. I can build that base of the system, with some help, its simple enough, but the actual delivery system isn't going to be so easy.
SKYLA According to the dossier, the dispersal unit and the chemical intended for “delivery” is already assembled under guard at Velmuth Air Force base
LEAVING SCENE TO BE WRITTEN-TRANSITION INTO A JOVIAL DINNER AT “THE TABLE”. PERHAPS JUST FILS A WHILE OF US ACUTALLY EATING AND TALKING THE WAY WE DO.
Segment VI: Bow
Fall!
Now The dark begins to rise, save your breath it's far from over
Leave the lost and dead behind, nows your chance to run for cover
I don't want to change the world, I just want to leave it colder
Light the fuse and burn it up, take the path that leads to nowhere
All is lost again, but I'm not giving in
I Will Not Bow, I Will Not Break
I Will shut the world away
I will not fall, I will not fade
I will take your breath away
Watch the end from dying eyes, now the dark is taking over
Show me where forever dies
Take the fall and run to heaven
All is lost again but I'm not giving in
I will not bow, I will not break
I will shut the world away
I will not fall, I will not fade
I will take your breath away
And I'll survive, paranoid I have lost the will to change
And I am not proud, cold blooded, fake
I will shut the world away
I will not bow, I will not break
I will shut the world away
I will not fall, I will not fade
I will take your breath away
And I'll survive, paranoid
I have lost the will to change and I am not proud, cold blooded, fake
I will shut the world away
Fall!
Segment VII: Farewell
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