A smattering of good things

• Two views on the reprogramming of gays through faith -- one that claims success, of a sort, and one that found peace only when he found a faith community open to who he already was. A gripping video.
  (blog found via Ampersand)
  
  
• A fascinating reflection on how portraits are made, and whether subject or camera-weilder has ultimate control over what is conveyed.
  (via kottke)
  
  
• A lifetime suburban couple moves into a big city and finds things they didn't expect:

  We realize now that the cocoons of our cars kept us well insulated from the people around us. Our genuine interactions were with family and coworkers, the only people who saw us stripped of the metal that clothed and protected us. Our neighbors, we discovered, were virtually strangers.
  
  Now, we stand face-to-face with people in our building’s elevators, at our corner hangouts, and on the sidewalks. We chitchat and pet our neighbors’ dogs. We exchange “good mornings” with the people we pass everyday on our way to work. We’ve developed friendships with several proprietors and servers at our favorite restaurants.

  Indeed, I moved to a city for what I expected to be a temporary position, and then decided to pick my next job to let me stay. It's not the things that lure you at first -- the restaurants, theaters, shops -- but the fascinating kaliedoscope of people, the daily walking and the way it attunes you to tiny changes in the weather and the urban landscape, and many other ineffable things that are part of making a place your own. I would feel cut off from the world in the suburbs, even laptop in hand...
  (via kottke)