Another cut and paste Email from me to a group of high school friends:
My husband is very discouraged by the election of the new pope. He just feels the new Pope is too conservative for his taste. He said Bernard Law is the only worse one they could have chosesn. I have to admit I liked that last guy. Considering the constraints he had to work under, meaning he did have to stick to Catholic teachings and tradition, he really did a lot of good. He traveled a lot and did a great job meeting with Protestant, Muslim and Jewish leaders, in a way that other Popes haven't been willing to do in the past. I had to admit it. He was just a nice guy and I liked him. He had also been through a lot in his life, so he seemed to have a more realistic view of people's daily lives than some previous popes who sound like they'd lived very sheltered lives. We had a bamboo wall hanging of the pope outside our house, on the wall, next to our front door, from the day he died, until the new one was elected. I was the one who set it out. In part, I just always thought it was weird that we owned a bamboo wall hanging of Pope John Paul II. I bought it for Paul back in the late 80's when we were dating, and he was very sick. I thought it would cheer him up. But also because we've had some pesky Jahovah's Witnesses who keep knocking on our door because Paul was too nice to them once a few weeks ago and I just wanted to get rid of them.
Yes, I still remember when you said Viva La Papa, over the high school intercom during morning announcements. I loved it because I was a news junkie, which I can still kind of be, but was very much back then when CNN first came out! I hated that for all the hours we were in school, if a big news story happened, no one told us until we got home.
When people ask me what religion I am , I tell them I'm an athiest. I like the look on their face when I say it, because they just never seem to expect it from me.
Just between us it's really hard to claim to be a complete athiest, because, among other reasons, I'm completely fascinated how my kids have the personalities and preferences that they do, which clearly don't always come from me and my husband. Why is our 11 year old daughter so obsessed with rocks? And why is our 6 year old son so angry and fearful of losing things? Things like that make me think, there must be some design I'll never understand. But anyway it' s just easier to say I'm an atheist, because then no one asks me a bunch of follow up questions.
No I have never attended an atheist meeting. What would be the point?
And after having attended several Unitarian church meetings over the years, I sort of feel the same way about them. You do get to meet cool, interesting people, so it's ok for social reasons. But otherwise, remind me again why I'm here?
I've been to a few Sons of Norway meetings now. Man , it's mainly a bunch of really, really old ,like great-grandparent old people, sitting in a row of chairs, maybe about 100 people, in a large church basement, while some men give speeches, give out awards for things, like "number of miles walked" and have an enterrtainer like an accordian player who tells "Ole and Lena" jokes and plays old scandanavian tunes that other people know the words to but I don't. And yes they're all Lutheran. They sit around afterwards and drink coffee and ask each other who's the pastor in your church this year and what committees they're all on. I just smile and nod.
I took my kids, about a week ago, on Sunday, to a local sign-language Lutheran church. It's pretty much like a Catholic church except for no kneeling. I don't see a whole lot of difference. My husband insists on taking at least our daughter to Catholic Church every Sunday, and sometimes I go too, but once every 2 months or so, I like us to visit a church we've never been to before. And if they have a signed service I try to make it that one, so I can improve my sign and my son can see it. My daughter is not interested in languages, but my son is.
When you say you regret being in the Christian sorority in college, I bet you were in the Christan club in college because that's where you needed to be at the time. There's a million times worse things a teen ager could be interested in.
And yes I listen to Prairie Home Companion almost every Sunday afternoon. I love the humor but mostly hate the music. Yes he jokes about Lutherans all the time, which is pretty funny because although Garrison Kiellor grew up in a Lutheran town, he grew up in a Brotheren family, which are really a lot like Mormons, only much less organized. I dont' remember hearing the "Lutheran Air" episode specifically, however.
Thats so funny your brother scared you away from church by presenting his idea of Heaven as having a lobotomy so that your expectations would just be less and some of your memories would be erased. I grew up Mormon, and the Mormon idea of heaven is a lot like Utah, so I never had any interest in going there, specifically, either. Men will become gods and create their own little worlds to rule over, and their wives will be...um...their wives. Big woop. I sort of imagined that like being married to a guy who is obsessed with his elaborate train set.Only forever.
Oh, well I just like talking to you guys. I wish you were here. I"m jealous Michele F is coming to visit you. I think of her often, and Emmanuelle!
My mom won one of 4 School District Employee of the year awards, this spring!! So I was really happy for her! And she and my dad actually took a vacation! Together! To Hawaii! I almost fainted when I heard that!
And when you asked about our identities, when it comes to identity all I can tell you is that I have a punk-rock heart. I'll never outgrow it. I'm technically a mostly-white, working, midwestern, suburban mother of 2; an American of countless, but mainly 4 different nationalities that I can think of ; and a product of the schools and churches I attended. But play Black Flag singing "Rise Above," or the Sex Pisols singing the line "No Future for Me," at the end of "God Save the Queen," and my fist will be in the air like Monty Python's sketch about Scotsmen hearing distant bagpipes. And the sad thing is , I wasn't even there at the time! I had to hear all that music and hear and read all the descriptions later from the people who WERE there. That whole scene happened while I was babysitting my little brothers and sisters, and sitting in an LDS church pew singing "Nearer My God to Thee," but yet my spiritual home is in that music and I'll never know why. That response that comes from inside me is just part of that mystical grand design over which I clearly have no control.
My husband is very discouraged by the election of the new pope. He just feels the new Pope is too conservative for his taste. He said Bernard Law is the only worse one they could have chosesn. I have to admit I liked that last guy. Considering the constraints he had to work under, meaning he did have to stick to Catholic teachings and tradition, he really did a lot of good. He traveled a lot and did a great job meeting with Protestant, Muslim and Jewish leaders, in a way that other Popes haven't been willing to do in the past. I had to admit it. He was just a nice guy and I liked him. He had also been through a lot in his life, so he seemed to have a more realistic view of people's daily lives than some previous popes who sound like they'd lived very sheltered lives. We had a bamboo wall hanging of the pope outside our house, on the wall, next to our front door, from the day he died, until the new one was elected. I was the one who set it out. In part, I just always thought it was weird that we owned a bamboo wall hanging of Pope John Paul II. I bought it for Paul back in the late 80's when we were dating, and he was very sick. I thought it would cheer him up. But also because we've had some pesky Jahovah's Witnesses who keep knocking on our door because Paul was too nice to them once a few weeks ago and I just wanted to get rid of them.
Yes, I still remember when you said Viva La Papa, over the high school intercom during morning announcements. I loved it because I was a news junkie, which I can still kind of be, but was very much back then when CNN first came out! I hated that for all the hours we were in school, if a big news story happened, no one told us until we got home.
When people ask me what religion I am , I tell them I'm an athiest. I like the look on their face when I say it, because they just never seem to expect it from me.
Just between us it's really hard to claim to be a complete athiest, because, among other reasons, I'm completely fascinated how my kids have the personalities and preferences that they do, which clearly don't always come from me and my husband. Why is our 11 year old daughter so obsessed with rocks? And why is our 6 year old son so angry and fearful of losing things? Things like that make me think, there must be some design I'll never understand. But anyway it' s just easier to say I'm an atheist, because then no one asks me a bunch of follow up questions.
No I have never attended an atheist meeting. What would be the point?
And after having attended several Unitarian church meetings over the years, I sort of feel the same way about them. You do get to meet cool, interesting people, so it's ok for social reasons. But otherwise, remind me again why I'm here?
I've been to a few Sons of Norway meetings now. Man , it's mainly a bunch of really, really old ,like great-grandparent old people, sitting in a row of chairs, maybe about 100 people, in a large church basement, while some men give speeches, give out awards for things, like "number of miles walked" and have an enterrtainer like an accordian player who tells "Ole and Lena" jokes and plays old scandanavian tunes that other people know the words to but I don't. And yes they're all Lutheran. They sit around afterwards and drink coffee and ask each other who's the pastor in your church this year and what committees they're all on. I just smile and nod.
I took my kids, about a week ago, on Sunday, to a local sign-language Lutheran church. It's pretty much like a Catholic church except for no kneeling. I don't see a whole lot of difference. My husband insists on taking at least our daughter to Catholic Church every Sunday, and sometimes I go too, but once every 2 months or so, I like us to visit a church we've never been to before. And if they have a signed service I try to make it that one, so I can improve my sign and my son can see it. My daughter is not interested in languages, but my son is.
When you say you regret being in the Christian sorority in college, I bet you were in the Christan club in college because that's where you needed to be at the time. There's a million times worse things a teen ager could be interested in.
And yes I listen to Prairie Home Companion almost every Sunday afternoon. I love the humor but mostly hate the music. Yes he jokes about Lutherans all the time, which is pretty funny because although Garrison Kiellor grew up in a Lutheran town, he grew up in a Brotheren family, which are really a lot like Mormons, only much less organized. I dont' remember hearing the "Lutheran Air" episode specifically, however.
Thats so funny your brother scared you away from church by presenting his idea of Heaven as having a lobotomy so that your expectations would just be less and some of your memories would be erased. I grew up Mormon, and the Mormon idea of heaven is a lot like Utah, so I never had any interest in going there, specifically, either. Men will become gods and create their own little worlds to rule over, and their wives will be...um...their wives. Big woop. I sort of imagined that like being married to a guy who is obsessed with his elaborate train set.Only forever.
Oh, well I just like talking to you guys. I wish you were here. I"m jealous Michele F is coming to visit you. I think of her often, and Emmanuelle!
My mom won one of 4 School District Employee of the year awards, this spring!! So I was really happy for her! And she and my dad actually took a vacation! Together! To Hawaii! I almost fainted when I heard that!
And when you asked about our identities, when it comes to identity all I can tell you is that I have a punk-rock heart. I'll never outgrow it. I'm technically a mostly-white, working, midwestern, suburban mother of 2; an American of countless, but mainly 4 different nationalities that I can think of ; and a product of the schools and churches I attended. But play Black Flag singing "Rise Above," or the Sex Pisols singing the line "No Future for Me," at the end of "God Save the Queen," and my fist will be in the air like Monty Python's sketch about Scotsmen hearing distant bagpipes. And the sad thing is , I wasn't even there at the time! I had to hear all that music and hear and read all the descriptions later from the people who WERE there. That whole scene happened while I was babysitting my little brothers and sisters, and sitting in an LDS church pew singing "Nearer My God to Thee," but yet my spiritual home is in that music and I'll never know why. That response that comes from inside me is just part of that mystical grand design over which I clearly have no control.
