Yesterday was just so jam-packed that even with two posts, I didn’t have a chance to reflect on everything worth saying. Consider this the spill-over post.
Thank you for your votes on how we should spend our summer vacation. Ya know, living my life according to Interweb plebiscite has a certain appeal. I’ll be consulting you for input on our life decisions much more frequently.
In the end, Beloved and I decided to skip the road trip to St Thomas and TtFTE in July. I am, quite frankly, hugely relieved. If anybody out there would like a deal on four great tickets to see the sold-out Thomas the Tank live in St Thomas (20 minutes from London) on July 22, drop me a note.
Yesterday was also a day of weird coincidences and convergences. Some funny, some profound, and some a little sad. For instance, you have to laugh that the calendar date for the first time I wandered back in to a church since (thoughtful pause, head scratching…) well, in at least a couple of years, was 6-6-6. Snicker.
Poor Tristan. In my ongoing crash course on God for preschoolers, I was explaining to him that we were going to the church, and the church is where you talk to God, and that we were going to talk to the priest about making Tristan and Simon a part of God’s family. Then we left him with my parents while we went to the ‘how to have your child baptized’ seminar. Poor Tristan wasted no time telling my mother that he liked his old family, and didn’t want a new one. Oops!
So then we’re driving to the church high school, and you know what song is on the radio? ‘Counting Blue Cars’ by Dishwalla, with this lyric:
And ask many questions
Like children often do
We said,tell me all your thoughts on god?
cause I would really like to meet her.
And ask her why were who we are.
Tell me all your thoughts on god,
Cause I am on my way to see her.
And you know what the strangest part is? By the end of the night, I was feeling pretty keen about the whole Catholic thing. I was relieved to see that for the boys’ baptism, we will be in the company of lots of other lazy and / or indecisive parents of toddlers, preschoolers and even a seven-year old – in fact, not a mewling newborn in the lot.
The priest, Father John, was one of those kindly, soft sorts of fellows to whom you really do want to entrust your spiritual upbringing. I got to thinking maybe we’d even go to church every now and then, and maybe I’d even (gasp!) sign up for one of their committees. I left the church high school feeling warm and fuzzy, but I just about fell out of my shoes when Beloved turned to me and said, ‘You know, maybe I’ll take my confirmation sacrament one of these days.’ You think I’m cynical about the church? I’m PollyAnna compared to him.
And then I wake up today and I hear that yesterday the Catholic Church issued yet another sweeping condemnation of abortion, birth control, same sex marriage and … reproductive technologies like artificial insemination and IVF. More weird convergences – day one of my frostie mock cycle happens the same day I think that maybe I will give the church another try or at least an open mind, and is also the day the Church issues this closed-minded, archaic and out-of-touch epistle.
All I can do is shake my head and shrug my shoulders.
*sigh*
It’s hard, isn’t it? I think every Catholic I know feels this impossible tension between their own personal values and faith and the edicts from some old guy in Italy.
Wow. It’s hard to make that make sense. I know the feeling of wanting to bring up a child with the influence of some time tested social and moral values and the frustration of looking for them at church. I heard a sermon recently about how religion was not like an all-you-can-eat buffet. We’re not supposed to accept some of it and leave the rest behind. I had problems with that. It sounds like you might too. Are you a devout Catholic or would you ever explore other Christian faiths that might be a closer fit to your present belief system? Just a thought.
Kirsten has an interesting perspective. Maybe I’m going about it the wrong way, but the things mentioned are things about the Catholic Church I refuse to accept – yet I am still a practicing Catholic. I can’t even tell you why.
Have you heard of Catholics For Choice? It’s an organization I find myself attached to in a lot of ways. http://www.catholicsforchoice.ca/, if you’re interested.
I really struggle with those “take the whole package or nothing” sermons. It’s not a fair demand. Who can truly live up to that standard and still live and function in the real world?
The church should be encouraging spiritual discernment, not demanding devotion to its dogma.
email me…I’ll fill your mailbox with more of my favorite feminist, thoughtful Catholic theologians than you can shake a stick at. Stop focusing on the Vatican and find yourself a nice Religious order to Associate with. Might I suggest, Benedictine, Sisters of St. Joseph (CSJ), Sisters of St. Mary, Sisters of Loretto (hooo! their fun and awnry) or even perhaps the Jesuits.
My favorite feminists are old nuns. Two of them live across the street from me. One used to be a nurse midwife who tended to the migrant workers of Florida and Texas. She kicks ass, you’d love her.
Leave the stodgy old guys alone in their ivory tower and hang out with the cool chicks at any local convent. That is where the Church is truly doing it’s work.