Thank you all for the silver medal in the Beliefnet "June Member of the Month" contest!!

"THE DOXIEMAN BLOG" is a wry, sardonic take on politics and pop culture from an ordinary guy who happens to have a chronic disease.  It's listed under "My Journal," or if you need a URL, it's at http://community.beliefnet.com/doxieman122

My blog, my other activities on Beliefnet, and my volunteer work IRL in the New York/New Jersey area (if anyone wants to pay me, just let me know!!) have given me the reputation of a "depression activist."  I know the label is a compliment, but I prefer to think I'm just someone who's realized after a long time that there are so many other people in my boat who I can give my support and tell my experiences to -- even if I'm not always 100% myself.  ("Just like Pagliacci did, I try to keep my sadness hid" -- Smokey Robinson, "The Tears of a Clown")

As for my background ... I'm a Jesuit-educated ex-altar boy who was seduced (in a good way) by Catholic ritual and then spiritually crushed as the true implications of Vatican doctrine for a healthy, normal, heterosexual who doesn't want kids became apparent.  Possessing a palpable irony detector, my personality often comes out like Ralph Waldo Emerson or Walt Whitman, embracing instead of rejecting the contradictions in my life.  Likewise, my sense of humor is that of the sardonic Will Rogers, except when I get prickly and it comes out more like the acidly sarcastic Don Rickles ...

As for my personal beliefs today ... to cite movies, the Bible, and music: Kevin Spacey's closing monologue in "American Beauty' and Kevin Costner's Profession of Faith from "Bull Durham" are appealing (LOL); my life over the 10 years has echoes of the Book of Job (or, from the New Testament, 2 Corinthians 12) -- how do you survive the nearly unsurvivable?; and (besides "Tears of a Clown") Elvis' last wails in "If I Can Dream" and especially the last stanza of "The Impossible Dream" literally make me tear up.  Life is, after all, the ultimate quest.  So all these struggles leave me, like Jacob in Genesis 32, constantly wrestling with G-d. 

In addition to the social networking groups you see below, you can find me on the J-Walking and especially Beyond Blue (though no longer Crunchy Con) blogs under my name IRL.  And you can sign up as a "Bnet friend" to send me e-mail.  I have so much to be grateful to Beliefnet for -- I have met so many wonderful people, especially my gorgeous, amazing, kind, intuitive, sexy girlfriend, whom I never would have known without this site.  And who shares my love of Motown!

PS -- If you would like to know more about me, Therese Borchard (another friend who has helped me so much through Bnet) has published a biographical interview of me at http://blog.beliefnet.com/beyondblue/2007/11/larry-parker-how-do-you-move-b.html

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• Crunchy Con

  What turns a crunchy housewife on? - July 8, 2008 at 11:16 PM

  Julie wants chickens. One of my young hipster co-workers, she's got chickens in her urban backyard, and raves about them. Julie is envious, and is going to go over and visit Jo's chickens this...
• J-Walking

  Meet Barack Dobson - June 27, 2008 at 1:29 PM

  How different are they? Really? James Dobson and Barack Obama? On the face of it there is little, save their shared humanity, that seems to unite the two men. From their skin color to their...
• Beyond Blue

  Pray, Laugh, Breathe: Two Days of Healing - July 8, 2008 at 11:00 AM

  I wanted to thank all my dear Beyond Blue readers for your care and concern after I published the video about my darker days. I really was mixed on whether or not to publish that. But I remembered...

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