Larger Than Life

I've just realized, I've never really understood what 'larger than life' means. Hey, you who graduated from English literature, please help me here.

But I have an imagery of the phrase in my mind. I imagine something that's limitless, something that's fearless, something that is... larger than life itself. And when I think of a person who fits that imagery, I think of Melissa.

She has just done something amazing, again. I'm so proud of her and I'm so proud to be her fan. Someone who doesn't love her music, well, okay, though I don't understand I can tolerate that, because music is unexplainable, it's much like sexual orientation in a way. Some may like men, some like women, some like both, some like the fat ones, some like the skinny ones, some like the talls and some like the shorts. Whatever. But I'm sure I can't like someone who doesn't admire her in person (at least from how she appears in public).

Have you ever heard about Rick Warren? I've heard his name from his book, which I never read. But the first time I researched about him was when there was this big tide of threads and comments about 'Obama's first mistake'. It was about how Obama invited pastor Rick Warren to his innaugural. Problem was, Warren is known as a supporter of Prop 8, and he said that for him, being gay equals with pedophilia, incest and poligamy, and therefore we cannot have the right to get married. Oops. You said something like that on public and the next thing you know, someone like Tammy would call you a Dick Warren on her blog.

Now I know that I may never meet him in my lifetime, but Melissa did. She was invited to perform to Muslim Public Affairs Council, and the keynote speaker for that event was happened to be Rick Warren. Did she bail out from the gig? Nope. Did she turn her back on him? Nope. Did she call him names and yell at him? Nope. She does what women do best: talk. She talked with him. And invited him to her house for dinner.

What did Jesus do? He invited a Roman tax-man to have dinner with him. What did Melissa do? She invited a Dick Warren to have dinner with her and her family. See a familiarity here? She is truly amazing. What makes me mad though is that she gets the backlash from fans and non-fans alike for building the bridge of peace. Can't they see it? Whether Rick will have more acceptance of gay people after talking with Melissa (it's his own word that 'tolerace is not good enough, it has to be acceptance) or not, it doesn't matter. Even if he'll remain a jerk, it doesn't matter. What matters is that Melissa has taken the first step, offering a hand through their differences. Rick accepted. Time will tell the rest. How can they blame Melissa for replacing hate with love and peace? I can only love her more for this. There's no doubt in my mind that I will continue to love her for the rest of my life.

She's larger than life. Just when I think 'Wow, I can't believe she did that!', she does something even more wonderful. And don't let me start to talk about fear. She's been fearless since she's cancer free. She's been so brave since forever, chasing her dream to California on her own, coming out when she's on the top of her carreer, putting an end to her 11 years of relationship... well, I admire her for that too. She doesn't care what anyone else said, she would choose the road less travelled. That road is difficult, it may even lead down to hell and up again, but in the long shot it leads to a greater place than the more travelled one. Damn, I'm so going to follow her more than the church. She's far more Jesus-like.

References:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melissa-etheridge/the-choice-is-ours-now_b_152947.html

http://hollywoodfarmgirl.blogspot.com/2008/12/as-universe-laughed-at-me-i-got-little.html