Craig Braquet
Bio
Stories (9/0)
- Top Story - September 2019
Growing Up in a Post-Integration World
I grew up on a combination of Military Bases all over the United States, and in junior high my family settled in South Central Louisiana. Just before moving to the South we lived on a military base near Rapid City South Dakota. This was an enlightening experience for me as it was my first glimpse of prejudice.
By Craig Braquet5 years ago in The Swamp
My Brother Asked Me a Question Designed to Hopefully Cause a Paradox
My brother asked me a question designed to hopefully cause a paradox. He asked me my opinion on a UK law that will make it illegal to smoke in a vehicle where there is a child present that is under the age of 18. It was evident that he assumed I'd be in favor of such a law, and he'd then spring the paradox of an unborn child deserving those same protections. He even "warned" me with, "Be careful, I'm setting you up." Here's my reply.
By Craig Braquet5 years ago in The Swamp
How I Answer the "What's Your Religion?" Question
A friend recently asked me my religious beliefs. This was my stream of consciousness in response: I believe there is only one overriding God presence in this universe. I believe that all named gods are manifestations of this universal presence. Some cultures feel the need to anthropomorphize God into something that they can more easily identify with, hence we have Hindu culture with hundreds if not thousands of gods, each a different manifestation of this universal presence. Celtic, Greek, and Roman cultures (among others) had gods with certain realms of influence, again manifestations of one universal presence. When early man looked at nature and the unknowable stars and saw the indescribable wonder of it all, they felt that universal presence and they looked for ways to anthropomorphize it. They created oral histories that their children could understand, giving life to the sun, moon, and things in nature in ways that had meaning to them. These manifestations of a universal presence became spirits and gods. They gave meaning and purpose to the calendar and seasons. They helped instill moral values in their peoples and sparked an inquisitiveness in their people to look with new eyes and question the world and wonders around them. Over the eras, the creation stories, worldwide flood stories, and God stories were formed and across the world these stories are strikingly familiar to anyone willing to compare them.
By Craig Braquet5 years ago in Futurism
They're Waving Their Testicles Around?
Many years ago in 1987 I shared my home with a roommate who worked as a collection manager for the Smithsonian Museum’s National Zoo. Don’t jump to conclusions about what this story is about until you read the rest of the story.
By Craig Braquet5 years ago in Petlife
Global Masked Hero Sightings Expected
I recently joined a very exclusive club. Now I know I shouldn't be talking about it, but since I didn't sign any non-disclosure agreements or official secrets documents I'm going to go out on a limb and out myself and the rest of our club. Find your secret decoder ring, it’s in that shoe box under your bed, and keep reading below.
By Craig Braquet5 years ago in Humans
The Return of Freedom to Love Without Barriers (Part 2—The Beginning of the End of HIV)
In my previous article, "The Return of Freedom to Love Without Barriers—Part 1," I told of the beginnings of the Free Love Movement, the contraceptive pill, and the Age of Sexual Enlightenment. We discussed the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic and the beginning of the Condom Era, where we learned that sex can kill you, and the term "safe sex" became a household word.
By Craig Braquet5 years ago in Filthy
The Return of Freedom to Love Without Barriers (Part 1—The Beginning)
I’ll start out by saying this is going to be a controversial article. I’ll be called irresponsible. The comments will be raging with vitriol on both sides of the argument, but it’s time that someone brought it up.
By Craig Braquet5 years ago in Filthy
My Journey to Truly Understanding Love
As a young person i would have said that LOVE was what one felt toward their Mother, Father, and Siblings, but I came from a pretty dysfunctional family and I wouldn't wish that love on anyone. It took me seven years away from my family before I could tell my partner that I loved them, because every time the word was about to come out of my mouth I thought of my father, whom I'd been told to parrot the words "I love you" to, even though I'd never heard them from him. I had to relearn the world LOVE under a non-familial context. I had to "learn" how to love again. After those seven years of relearning, I looked up definitions of the word: "A profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person," YES, if that was love, then I sincerely felt it for my then partner of seven years. How about "a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend."? Well, I loved my mother, and though Jay and I didn't really get along very well at the time, I was fond of my brother, but again that "family love" got stuck in my throat when it came to my dad. I finally came to realize that, at that time in my life, "love takes time", and I was learning that I had to separate the idea of "familial love" and "non familial love". Once I made that distinction I could vocalize that I loved the person that I'd decided to share my life's journey with, my partner, and over time I realized that I could love other people too. That there were different kinds of love. I found out that the more I loved people, the more those old definitions of love fell away
By Craig Braquet5 years ago in Motivation