Of Marriage and Steel Panels

Hi everyone,

 

I'm typing this with a glass of wine, a bottle of water and some chips.  It's been an interesting day.

 

I woke up about 2:30am to the news of the US Supreme Court's gay marriage decision, and again at about 6:00am to a battery of Facebook posts about it, for and against.  I must be the only person on the planet who really doesn't have an opinion on the issue one way or another.  I can't see any reason why the law cannot recognise unconventional (for want of a better adjective) relationships between people.  In the past the law has recognised criminal liability in livestock (1) and still recognises that inanimate objects can have contractual obligations (2).  Recognising the capacity of two people of the same sex to form a particular type of relationship is a positive trifle by comparison, and if it works a greater justice, so much the better.  I think it would be a good thing, though, if the people wrapping themselves in rainbows today also recognised that this is a painful day for a number of good and kindly people.  I think that, in the end, opposition to gay marriage largely reflects the understanding of marriage as a sacrament - as an analogue of the relationship between Christ and His church.  For a particular strand of Christianity, gay marriage must seem like a travesty of that sacrament.  For them it is painful for the same reason as a Jew in Melbourne might find it painful to hear of a synagogue in the Middle East being destroyed, even though their own synagogue is untouched.  I guess this is the drawback with having disputes resolved by the Courts: one side always has to lose.

 

Since I'd woken up to find the world was variously a cranky and gloaty place, I rolled over and went back to sleep.  I surfaced again just before 10am.  At about that time Michael rang from his farm at Violet Town to say that some of the heifers there had got through a fence and gone walkabout.  Dad and I went over and worked them around the fencelines and back into a paddock with an electric wire around it.

 

 

Fran had come back by the time we returned to the farm here.  This was a little awkward: she has finally left Michael and they're in the process of separating.  It's not, perhaps, as bad as it sounds: they're both good people, but they've always been poorly matched and once some time has gone by and everyone has adapted, I think they'll both be happier.  But, it means things are a bit fraught for the moment.

 

 

After lunch, Dad, Fran and I went back over to Michael's place with a truckload of yard panels, for putting up some temporary drafting yards.  Michael's tractor has only short, bale-handling spikes on it; they were a little precarious when unloading pallets of steel panelling!

 

 

We got a few panels set up before the weather began to cool significantly and we headed back.  Michael declined the offer to have dinner here (not unreasonably: if I were in his shoes I'd want a little time to lick my wounds too).

 

Which brings me to now: a fire in the grate, some wine and blogging.  I may put something more up later.  I hope you're all doing well and looking forward to the weekend!

 

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(1) David Andress, Review of 'Seeing Justice Done' (2013) 118 American Historical Review 1606.
(2) Damien J. Cremean, Admiralty Jurisdiction: Law and Practice in Australia and New Zealand (2nd ed., 2003), p.108