Sunday, April 11, 2004
Today I went to Greenville, North Carolina to go to church. I decided to check out the Unitarian church there in hopes of finding some liberals amid all the East Carolina madness.

I drove about an hour to get there. The landscape between Rocky Mount and Greenville is pretty bleak. It is pretty, in its way, but it is also miles and miles of empty land with a few shacks here and there. And when I say shacks, I am talking about the kind of housing that many of us who are not from here have never seen before. There is something very unique about rural poverty and the way of living out there. Very different from urban poverty. I saw a whole family cooking something outside on a fire...I'd like to think it was a barbeque, but from the way the place was set up, they may cook outside because they don't have a stove. The table was out there and everything.

The church I went to was pretty cool. There were lots of nice people there and I was happy to see the presence of lots of rainbow flags on some people's nametags. There was this one very elderly woman (like eighty or something) who was wearing one and then she sat next to this other very elderly woman and held her hand. I don't know why it is so shocking to see elderly gay people...I mean, everyone gets old, right? But it was shocking. It was so cool I got a little teary.

I think that I will probably go back again. It is something to do and the drive is not too long and pretty interesting. ¶ 10:08 AM