{"id":226828,"date":"2014-02-18T02:03:11","date_gmt":"2014-02-18T02:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2014\/02\/18\/sherlock-subtext-and-my-ultra-conservative\/"},"modified":"2014-02-18T02:03:11","modified_gmt":"2014-02-18T02:03:11","slug":"sherlock-subtext-and-my-ultra-conservative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2014\/02\/18\/sherlock-subtext-and-my-ultra-conservative\/","title":{"rendered":"Sherlock, Subtext, and My Ultra-Conservative Baby-Boomer Dad"},"content":{"rendered":"

particularscarf<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

My Dad will be 64 this autumn. My Dad is a die-hard Republican. My Dad was a Southern Baptist pastor for nearly 30 years. And my Dad is a Sherlock fan.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s always had TV shows he enjoyed (I grew up on Star Trek.. it was kind of Our Thing), but he\u2019s mostly a passive fan. The kind who is willing to wait patiently until the next season of something airs and suddenly remembers, two hours prior, that today\u2019s the day.<\/p>\n

So when my Dad called me a couple weeks ago, voice a little tremulous, begging me to send him a link whereby he could stream Sherlock series 3 and bypass the PBS waiting period, I happily sent him the best one I\u2019d found. He didn\u2019t want to wait, he wanted to watch it NOW, and I could respect him for that. It was a pleasant surprise, him loving the show so much he had to watch it NOW.<\/p>\n

Today, I finally got the chance to ask him about it.<\/p>\n

I was bouncing on my toes, excited to be fangirling about my fave show with my own father. \u201cWhat did you think, Dad?\u201d<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t expect him to get a little choked up. His next words blew my mind.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cSweetie, I\u2019m old. Set in my ways. I was taught, and adhered to, a certain way that people should be with each other. I preached it, and I voted in light of it, and I taught it to you and your sister. But I watched this show. And I watched these two men fall in love with each other. And the only thing I could think was, \u2018These two souls are meant to be together\u2019. Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are\u2026 soulmates. Over my years as a pastor, I\u2019ve seen couples get married.. And couples get divorced.. It happens. But I\u2019ve never seen two people who were more perfectly designed to fit together, and it broke my heart to see it not happen for them. I\u2019m sorry I\u2019ve been such an ass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given that it was a brave moment, I blurted out, \u201cDad, I\u2019m bisexual.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he turned to me and smiled, tears in his eyes, and said, \u201cJust\u2026 be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t fret that the press \u201chas yet to discover\u201d the \u201csubtext\u201d inherent in Sherlock. Don\u2019t fret that the creators and the actors still deny it. Because if my Dad can see it, then it\u2019s crystal clear. My almost-64-yr-old-Dad ships Johnlock. My SOUTHERN BAPTIST PASTOR Dad ships Johnlock.<\/p>\n

To the point that he internalized change in his thinking about same-sex relationships, and happily accepted my (rather abrupt) coming out.<\/p>\n

Keep the faith.<\/p>\n

This ship has sailed; and my Dad, of ALL people, is right on fucking board.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

particularscarf: My Dad will be 64 this autumn. My Dad is a die-hard Republican. My Dad was a Southern Baptist pastor for nearly 30 years. And my Dad is a Sherlock fan. He\u2019s always had TV shows he enjoyed (I grew up on Star Trek.. it was kind of Our Thing), but he\u2019s mostly a … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Sherlock, Subtext, and My Ultra-Conservative Baby-Boomer Dad”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[129,15,4,458],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226828"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}