I've watched the Nashville Pride celebrations this weekend with a full heart and unspeakable joy... But on the same day I was overcome with overwhelming love, I also watched as our president gave a heart-rending eulogy for an honorable man, Reverend Clementa Pinckney, murdered in his place of worship because of his race. There came another report of an unarmed Black man shot in Baltimore. And still the bickering about the Confederate flag continues with a terrifying fervor. Can I wrap my head and my heart around both the love and the frustration I feel today? I'm struggling.

If you read this, know this journal is a personal space that helps me work out my own thoughts and feelings. I use it to create some sense of order in my brain or to facilitate conversations with people I trust and respect, even if our opinions differ. I have no intention of engaging in arguments with irrational people. I'm not a pundit or columnist. I'm not perfect, but I'm trying to find out how to be better, or at least more articulate. But in my earlier thoughts about the violence in Charleston, I didn't articulate a very important aspect of this event. Actions and issues are complicated; they can be about more than one thing at a time.