Volunteerism as Professional Development

In light of my current physical predicament and the ensuing medical developments thereby involved and keeping me out of the workforce for an extended period of time (well into 2010), I have begun to consider volunteerism as a valuable means to continue in my professional development, so as to develop my resume and to gain valuable skills in nonprofit program development for the prevention/advocacy and performance/visual arts fields.

My first order of business is to establish communication with various nonprofit organizations and networks seeking volunteer participation in their program development and services. I have already contacted CounterPULSE (an alternative arts organization in San Francisco, CA), ArtSpan (the producers of SF Open Studios, Young Nonprofit Professional Network | San Francisco Bay Area (YNPN/SFBA) and Project Open Hand (a local nutritional outreach program for HIV/AIDS positive individuals and the critically ill) for further information on volunteer opportunities.

In correspondance, I have made myself available to volunteer with numerous performance & programmatic events with CounterPULSE, and I have met in person with the Volunteer Coordinator of Project Open Hand. The YNPN/SFBA Volunteer Coordinator has also sent me via email a cursus of volunteer opportunities assisting in program development, events planning and administration for that network. I've yet to formally decide on which opportunities I am going to committedly pursue, expect of course for those opportunities I've already committed to with CounterPULSE. I will be attending a Volunteer Orientation for Project Open Hand on Wednesday evening next week, followed up by a TB Test and a Saturady 6-hour Volunteer Training to work in the Grocery Center or the Kitchen of Project Open Hand.

My primary concern is not to over-extend myself with too many commitments and activities, while at the same time filling my very empty daily schedule with tasks, responsibilities and events. I'm particularly interested in all of these volunteer opportunities that I've mentionned and would be willing to consider any additional opportunities that someone might suggest to me. I am however so far less interested in the YNPN/SFBA volunteer opportunities, as I do not yet hold any particular affinity to that group: a group that I was introduced to via my LinkedIn® affiliation & profile.

Another concern for participating in a variety of volunteer opportunities is my facial disfigurement and how it might impede on my involvements and participation. I will always be wearing a mask. My speech is slightly impaired due to the disfigurement. I am not necessarily at ease in public situations or when interacting with others; although, I do hope that in volunteering, I will be able to overcome my profound insecurities about my face. I don't know if any of the factors would prevent me from being able to participate as a volunteer for these organization, but they will certainly impose somewhat of a challenge for me to overcome.

Also, with regards to my professional development, I have just this evening sent via email my Cover Letter & Professional / Performance Resumes to CounterPULSE to be considered for a position as "Performing Diaspora Project Coordinator." I have previously applied for a position with CounterPULSE, but did not even receive a telephone response to my application submission, proving that they were not interested at that time. But with a new and improved Cover Letter and Resumes, I feel confident that they will be interested in talking with me more in-person about my credentials and my experience working in the Performing Arts and in Program Management.

If I do get the position, it will come as a great relief to the burden of the unending monotony of my daily life and would be a valuable way to continue in my professional career path part-time while also undergoing ongoing cycles of craniofacial reconstruction and recovery. Again, for this career opportunity, my facial disfigurement might easily deter from my appeal as a candidate for employment, as I've been told by a CounterPULSE representative before that my disfigurement & slight speech impediment would prevent me from executing the necessary responsibilities of public speaking related to any employment with the organization.

I will in the future plan on posting blog entries chronicling my involvement as a volunteer with whichever organizations I indeed initiate a relationship and participate with. So, for my avid blog following (who ever the innumerable few are!), be prepared for updates in the time to come... And wish me luck on my endeavors! I'll need it.

An Irreverent, Licentious Remark on "God!"

My December 24, 2008 blog entry, entitled "MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS," included the text of an email message I sent out to all my Friends, Family & Colleagues (on Facebook™ & elsewhere) as a Holiday Blessing, in which I discuss my responsibility to discover my "other" God-given gifts & aptitudes in light of my life's mission being interrupted & canceled as a result of my unfortunate, tragic disfigurement.

I received plenty of positive responses to this message from various of its recipients, all expressing their gratitude & their admiration of my enduring sense of hope & purpose, in light of severe illness & injury. So far, I have only received one apparently negative response to that message, from a (former?) Facebook™ Friend: Jeff Parker in the San Francisco, CA Network [CLICK HERE! to link to Jeff Parker's Facebook* Profile].

Jeff Parker's single, seemingly ir reverent, licentious remark included in his email response to my original Holiday Blessing was "Good luck Matthew. Talk of god shuts down rational conversations" (January 2, 2009 at 10:19AM). He wrote nothing else. He did however refuse to capitalize the first letter of the proper noun: God, in his phraseology, to perhaps intentionally strip the word of its magnitude, power & meaning.

And I believe that after sending his response message, in frustration & disgust, he canceled our Friends' Connection on Facebook™, for when I went to visit his Profile, I found an option available for adding him as a Facebook™ Friend, which otherwise wouldn't appear if we were in fact connected. In reaction to his polite but rather mean-spirited end to our Facebook™ Connection and to his remark on "Talk of God," I wrote the following in a Facebook™ email message:

While I find it divinely poetic that you'd argue the denigration of rational thought when there's "Talk of God" in dialogue & communications, in so far as the majesty of a Higher Power should rightfully influence intellect & reason, I can not say that I agree with your obdurate assertion.

I am perfectly capable of both professing my Faith in the Divine and maintaining cohesive, coherent rational thought when expressing an opinion, discussing a particularly secular topic or when arguing for or against modern conceptions of Faith. In fact, I've just posted a new blog entry, entitled "PIOUS CELIBACY : Nobler Children of God!" (January 02, 2009 at 06:58PM) in which I intelligently rationalize an argument which defends the role of "group/family" relationships in our unfathomably complex individual experiences in Faith and which claims that pious celibacy is an antiquated route to Redemption or Enlightenment.

The new blog entry was written in response to my in-home Chaplain's January 02, 2009 Homily on readings of the Holy Gospel acc. to John 6:35-42, 48-52. Each week, on Fridarys, since I was discharged as a patient from Laguna Honda Hospital & Rehabilitation Center, my priest visits my home to offer me Holy Communion, the Day's readings of the Holy Gospel, his Homily on those readings and a blessed anointing. Each week, he rationalizes for me the immensity and grandeur of Faith in the Divine and guides me in my pursuits of righteous thought & action and in my attempts to discover & reasonably define my uniquely individual journey into God's graces.

My in-home Chaplain continues to demonstrate to me in his preachings his distinctly stoical & sound intellect, unblemished (but rather empowered) by his resoundingly rational Faith in God. He helps me understand my own individual Faith in God (i.e., "God" being a construct of the Human Mind: a sublime idea derived by a culmination of human experiences in our Civilization's long, tumultuous evolution, that is meant to conceptualize covetously irrational mysteries & miracles).

Faith in a Higher Power is defined by an individual's uniquely rational, physical & emotional interpretation of the Sublime, in so far as Divine Faith reconciles the purely human yearning for greater meaning in our lives with the infinitely numerous, monumental limitations of the Human Intellect. You see! You can't mistake it! You've caught me right here all emotionally enveloped in turgidly rational rhetoric on Faith. What IRONY! But, it is possible, as I've demonstrated in this small dissertation and in other portions of my journaling, to sustain (and yes, sometimes suspend) rational thought when talking of God.

I'm sorry if my Holiday Greetings email/blog message offended you in any way or struck you as obtuse and exceedingly reverent. I'm sorry if you can/will not be able to share in the joyfully innocent, enlightened examination of that which defines our very human, rational experiences of Faith in the Divine, for you seem to have declared a distinctly atheistic argument against talk of God. I'm not meaning to proselytize & preach, to convert or to convince you to bend to my own personal inclinations in Faith.

I'm just hoping to help broaden your intellect enough for it to be able to incorporate, experience & understand the Divine (or the spiritually "irrational") in all its Glory! I hope that this response is not resented and tossed away angrily, in frustration & unconvinced, but rather that my words here encourage your input & feedback and your courteous continuation of the conversational thread.

What are your thoughts on all that I have said? Has it been miserably difficult to follow my rambunctious train of thought, or have you well understood my arguments? Please respond in due time with extended personal thoughts on this elementary, polite dissertation! I look forward to receiving some sort of insightful response to my message. Thank you for taking the time to read this message and for giving full consideration to my points of view! Thank you for replying to my original Holiday Greeting message in the first place, with however slight & meagerly licentious a statement that you provided! Please respond! In due time...

Regards,
Matt(e)o | QHereKidSF
Matthew Blanchard
San Francisco, CA 94109
[01.03.2009 @ 09:14AM]

While I'm not certain of any ill-intent of Jeff Parker's part, I was struck rather affrontingly by his curt, concise response to my Holiday Greetings emal message, due to his refusal to ellaborate a full, thoughtful response, beyond the few purposefully parceled words that he wrote to me in Facebook™.

What I'm grateful for is to have been stimulated by his response (However short it might have been!) and to have been motivated to continue in my intimately personal intellectual rationalization of my experience in and understanding of Divine Faith. I believe that I achieved a certain level of rational discovery & comprehension of the sublime mysteries of Salvation in God's Love, with these recent blog entries & emails.

I think that there will be much time before I return to these subjects of "God," "Faith," "Gifts/Vocations" & "Human Intellect," because I fear that I am beginning to depict myself as passionately pious ascetic Believer who is bent on preaching & proselytizing to others & on trying to sway certain people in their Faith. I am not a profoundly religious person; although, I do have Faith in God: a resilient Faith that has survived with me through immense, harrowing tragedy in Life.

I was momentarily inspired by my participation in Christmas Eve Midnight Mass Services at The Church of the Advent of Christ the King (San Francisco, CA) and by ongoing discussions with my in-home Chaplain, which led to my original Holiday Greetings email message to Friends, Family & Colleagues and to the posting of yesterday's blog entry : "PIOUS CELIBACY : Nobler Children of God!"

I'll take a pause for now, for a good while, "to regain a command of rational thought" (So Jeff Parker would so like to believe!) or at least, to calm my passions and desensitize. Long phases of contemplation should always be followed by a period of much deserved rest & repose!

However, I suppose I will continue my blog opinion discussions on GLBTQ Civil Rights, Marriage Equality and on the 2009 Presidential Inauguration, just to stay in-tuned to current developments & decisive issues related to these three topics. I also think that a blog entry discussing my intentions to pursue professional development through participation in altruistic Nonprofit Organization Development Volunteerism is about due. To be further discussed in the near future... Auspicious Wisdom, Enlightenment & Immense Karmic Blessings to you all! Peace Out! Cheers! — Matt(e)o | QHereKidSF : Matthew Blanchard; San Francisco, CA 94109; 01.03.2008 @ 11:15AM.

PIOUS CELIBACY : Nobler Children of God!

Every week, on Fridays, since I was discarded as a patient of Laguna Honda Hospital & Rehabilitation Center after recuperating for three months after my first craniofacial reconstruction (January 30, 2008), the generous, faithful, altruistic Hospital Chaplain comes to visit me in my home to offer me holy communion, a reading of the Gospel, his homily and anointment. This week's "sante scritture" were readings of the Holy Gospel according to John: Chapter 6, Verses 35-42 & 48-51. A discussion on his homily follows an image of El Greco's painting, Saint John the Apostle and the text of the Holy Gospel.


"John The Apostle, Saint: painting by El Greco." Online Photograph,
Britannica Student Encyclopedia. Jan. 2, 2009,
http://student.britannica.com/eb/art-87622/.

The Holy Gospel acc. to John 6:35-42, 48-52

35 … And Jesus siad unto them, I am the bread of life: He that cometh to me shall not hunger; and he that believeth in me shall never thirst.
36 … But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believeth not.
37 … All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
38 … For I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
39 … And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that all which he hath given me I should Lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
40 … And this is the will of Him that hath sent me, that every one which seeth the son, and believeth in Him, may have everlasting life: And I will raise him up on the last day.
41 … The Jews then murmured to him, because he said, I am the bread which cometh down from heaven.
42 … And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I came down from Heaven?
48 … I am the bread of life.
49 … Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
50 … This is the Bread which cometh down from Heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
51 … I am the living bread which came down for Heaven: If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the World.
52 … The Jews therefore strove among themselves; Saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

"The Holy Gospel acc. to John 6:35-42, 48-52."
The Holy Bible: King James Version, p. 401.
Paradise Press, Inc., 2006.

PIOUS CELIBACY: Nobler Children of God!
Or The Unfathomably Complex Individual Experience in Faith:
Reaching Closer to God Through "Group/Family" Relationships

Reverend Steven Bartlett-Re's January 2, 2009 Homily for the readings of the Holy Gospel according to John: Chapter 6, verses 35-42 & 48-52 was born of our preliminary, pre-offertory discussion on current world events as they relate to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and on the antisemitism of Saint John the Apostle and therefore of all Christians argued by an elite group of fundamentalist Jewish religious leaders in contemporary theological studies.

Father Stephen compared the disingenuous belief of Jews in Jesus Christ, as depicted by the Holy Gospel according to John in the above verse and the historical tendency of various religious groups to factionalize and incite internal conflict within the (Roman) State, to the conflict between Jews & Muslims today, as well as to the disputes over Marriage Equality in the USA between the far-right Christian Fundamentalists and the GLBTQ Community today.

He then related the Christian/Gay disputes to the modern argument for "traditional family," born of an original Faith in Christ that was albeit all together egocentric and not at all family-oriented. From there developed Father Stephen's Homily on Pious Celibacy as the perfect path toward redemption, on the unfathomably complex, individual experience of Faith in God, and on the role of "group/family" relationships in the deepening of our realization of that Faith.

Father Stephen first argued that Jesus Christ was not pro-family; but instead, Christ preached that the journey into God's graces is an individual experience of learning unique to each Believer. As opposed to "group/family" relationships, Celibacy was considered the ultimately perfect & righteous path to Redemption. "Group/family" relationships only distracted the believer from his calling, blockading his path toward Salvation with inconvenient, inconsequential, troublesome distractions & conflicts.

Historical theological studies prove that most of Christ's original followers were celibate & unmarried (or divorced) and not bound to any family. Christ, in turn, created a "family" of followers of sorts, tangling his disciples in distinctly human struggles to define their relationships, hierarchy, customs, values, mores, etc.

Modern Christian values define the "family" as the center or the foundation of our Faith and of our journey toward Salvation. While Christ originally meant for his followers to learn strictly from their individual experiences in order to define and strengthen their Faith in God, today's Christians allow for a strengthening of Faith through learning of the sublime complexities of that Faith and connection to God based on "group/family" experiences and relationships.

Our journey toward Salvation remains an uniquely individual experience, only supported by our relationships and interactions with others. In this regard, Father Stephen believes that, as a Chaplain, he can not, for a believer wanting of answers and absolution to his doubting Faith, define another's individual relationship with God and "family." He can only guide them to a righteous path with scripture and teachings on godly Faith and pious action.

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender People's social history in a distinct way mimics this thesis on the value of "group/family" relationships and the complexity of the individual journey toward Salvation. It can be concluded from simple observation of their social interactions that older generations of GLBTQ Americans often beg for a return to simpler times earlier in our Community's history (c.1950-1960's), when only the right to proclaim and exhibit one's love of another was essential and not confounded by complex social mores, maxims and politics. GLBTQ elders often seek a return to a time when they existed comfortably in small, exclusive, clandestine groups that functioned as their surrogate "family."

Modern GLBTQ Culture & Community relationships and the journey toward a completely legitimized, legalized, accepted social identity (i.e., ≈ Salvation) are made more complex and deepened through shared experiences learned in larger, more open social groups (i.e., the GLBTQ "Family") and through generations. In this way, we are led to our present day struggles on the path toward Redemption: the fight for GLBTQ Civil Rights & Marriage Equality. The question remains...What's better: the life of a celibate ascetic gay believer or unions of GLBTQ couples in marriage legalized by the State and sanctified by our religious institutions?

Ironically, Modern Right-Wing Christian Fundamentalists align with older generations of the GLBTQ Community in their desire for simpler things, simpler relationships, simpler ways of being, a simpler Faith in God and a simpler journey toward Salvation, calling no heed to the influence of complex modern social relationships on their experience in God's Love. This system that strictly values former, less complex individual pathways toward Redemption makes these two vehemently opposed communities, in my opinion, prejudicial, exclusive, limited and ignorant in thoughts, values and customs.

The primary difference here between these two binary antithetical communities is that Right-Wing Christian Fundamentalists believe that their "institutions" of "traditional family" and "traditional marriage" are stricture that they are obligated to impose & enforce on all members of Society, regardless of Faith (or absence there of), while older GLBTQ generations do not impose their desire for simpler social relationships on their fellow community members, but rather they exist as an exclusive, discriminatory and relatively weak (again, in my opinion) social network that withholds or negates any of their potentially direct impact on the greater majority of Modern Gays & Lesbians.

Thus, Pious Celibacy as the ultimately perfect and higher route toward Salvation under God is an antiquated equation. In modern Christianity, according to Reverend Stephen Bartlett-Re, followers of Christ (gay & straight alike) should be guided to follow their own individual paths toward Redemption and to define their own unique relationship with and Faith in God by the influences and teachings of their worldly social experiences in groups and in "family." That is a more just, pious journey in God's Love. Preachers of Faith cannot proselytize and suggest exact redeeming actions or beliefs, but must guide their followers toward a discovery and a defining of their unique relationships with God through scripture, teachings and individual "group/family" experiences.

"Homily on the Holy Gospel acc. to John 6: 35-42, 48-52."
Spoken Word by Reverend Stephen Bartlett-Re,
January 2, 2009 1:47PM.

It has been my aim with this intimate, thoughtful essay on Faith and "family" to provoke profound contemplations & questions on the conflicts between Right-Wing Christian Fundamentalists and the GLBTQ Community, on our unique, unfathomably complex individual experiences in God's Love and on the influence of social relationships on our far-reaching, righteous paths toward a realization of Self and a realization of Faith. By offering a discussion on my intimate conversations with my in-home Chaplain, I mean to reveal and share with others the profound wisdom and guidance I receive from my personal leader in Faith.

I do not assume that every reader of this blog entry will whole-heartily agree with the conclusions presented in this discussion, nor do I seek to selfishly impose my beliefs on others. I do hope however that some random faithful soul might be touched by these teachings and have their Faith in God strengthened and stimulated by this sharing. If anything, readers could at least easily chuckle at the ironical comparison we've made between two diametrically opposed groups: Right-Wing Christian Fundamentalists and the GLBTQ Community.

May God bless each of us in our Faith with real instances of prosperity, wisdom, learning, achievements and grace in His Glory through our individual experiences and on our path, this year, further toward Redemption, and may we all be positively & profoundly influenced on our journey toward Salvation through diverse, righteous, valuable social relationships & experiences!

May we find peace amidst turmoil and strife! May we find absolution of our trespasses against others and against God, the Father! May we each have hope and trust in our capacity to grow and develop as Children of God (or of Karma and Chi gong) and in our capacity to reach ever further toward our complete realization of Self and of Faith! And finally: May we be blessed by God and by auspicious Karmic wisdom in 2009!