I Love the Weekend, We love “LOVE!”

Cafe Flore, San Francisco, CA Photo by JP Leddy May 6, 2012

This past weekend certainly was festive with Cinco De Mayo bringing in all the fun. It was certainly true for me. I enjoyed being out with friends, drinking, visiting, and well, drinking. I also had a lot of opportunity to hang out with groups of people that I did not normally hang out with and also reconnect with others that I had not done so for a long time, since my close friends were out of town.

It was nice and invigorating in that sense because it caused me to break from the usual routine. I did get to spend more time with two of my best friends Andy and Chris. That was nice . I had not had such focused time with each of them in a while.

The weather in San Francisco has been beautiful so it added to the general euphoric feeling of the weekend.

I also had a brunch date on Sunday that turned out quite wonderful at Cafe Flore. I mean I am not sure where it is going to go but it was such a nice time just sitting outside enjoying eachother’s company, great conversation, coffee and weather. I had not such a nice first date like that in long time.

Then in the evening I enjoyed dinner with someone that I dated last year. We are now friends . It was so nice to reconnect and just catch up. I thoroughly felt comfortable and emotionally connected.

It was also during the day , in one of the discussions with one of the groups of friends, that the history of the Castro came up and the impact of AIDs. I had mentioned seeing the display of the AIDs Quilt on its recent tour here. I found it to be one of the most moving and profound moments for me.

One man said that there was kind of a silver lining to all of it. He said that without AIDs that we as a gay community would not be as caring and giving towards each other. He implied that we would have remained really hedonistic. He said that AIDs allowed us to come together as a community and develop beyond a one night stand mentality towards each other.

I do not agree with a blanket statement like that. No disease, especially a horrific one that is fatal and impacts your life and the lives of others has a silver lining. I believe that crisis can pull a community together. It is commendable that communities can help each other like that. However, I like to think that our community would have still worked together regardless of AIDs. We are not one dimensional.

Despite the hedonism ( and gays don’t hold the monopoly on this trait), I think that a significant number of our community would love to have a partner rather than random hookups as a permanent life pattern. I think most would like to date and have some emotional connection. I also believe that sometimes in one’s life there are different seasons when one is in a different mind frame.

I also believe that our spirit of giving and caring did not have to be jump started by a fatal disease. We are one of the most caring and giving communities in this world. I see it on a weekly basis in events and fundraisers.

Yes, we love sex. But we also love “Love”, We care, give, and support. Hopefully, one day soon we can sit at the table of equality.