Things to read elsewherelivejournalDecember 2 2015, 20:39:46 UTC
User livredor referenced to your post from Things to read elsewhere saying: [...] have some links to other people's writing: I rather appreciated 's fic Silence in the hill country [...]
That is beautiful. I've recently discovered the perfect name to describe myself - I'm an Anglican atheist. I've shared this with some friends who love it as much as I do.
Thank you for telling me - it pleases me that people are finding value in this.
And, if it's not obnoxious or weird to say, congratulations on finding or understanding yourself that little bit more, to be able to name yourself. May it lead to further insights.
Not obnoxious or weird at all. I went on an interesting journey with each of my children when they decided they wanted to go to church. My daughter was confirmed in the Anglican Church. We both liked the pomp and circumstance of it - very different from the bare- bones United Church of Canada of my youth. My son joined a fundamentalist church for most of his teens - much more difficult for me. He did go to Africa and help to build a home for AIDS orphans, so there was value in that, too. I found myself having to insist that two church camps per summer was the limit. "Anglican atheist" suits me very well, and sounds so much nicer than "Not a Harris/Dawkins Atheist".
Thank you for the background! I'm raising two kids who have very little interest in organized religion at all, but I know how our children can lead us places we would never otherwise go.
And I'm generally in favor of names that reflect what a person is rather than what they're not. (Whenever possible, anyway.) I agree with you on Harris and Dawkins, but it's much more interesting to tease out the issue from the positive side.
And thanks for commenting -- even a brief encounter with a pleasant internet stranger is a pleasure. It messes with the pattern-matching engine of anxiety that says that everyone on the 'net is just a troll waiting to spring.
Thank you
anonymous
December 13 2015, 06:12:58 UTC
What a beautifully thoughtful story - full of empathy and life! I really enjoyed it. More, it has about it the sense of a mini-retreat. Thank you again. Justin Glyn SJ
Re: Thank youevilroosterDecember 13 2015, 09:45:33 UTC
Thank you!
I have always thought of the Visitation as (partly*) Mary's retreat to absorb the impact of the Annunciation. And although I haven't been on many retreats, the ones I have been on have often included this kind of unexpected mutual growth in companionship.
My pastor has pointed out that the transformation of Zechariah from successful high priest to speechless stay-at-home will have affected his son, too; that John the Baptist was who he was partly because he was raised by a Zechariah who had experienced it.
--- * no one get me started on the Mysteries of the rosary and story structure
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And, if it's not obnoxious or weird to say, congratulations on finding or understanding yourself that little bit more, to be able to name yourself. May it lead to further insights.
Reply
Reply
And I'm generally in favor of names that reflect what a person is rather than what they're not. (Whenever possible, anyway.) I agree with you on Harris and Dawkins, but it's much more interesting to tease out the issue from the positive side.
And thanks for commenting -- even a brief encounter with a pleasant internet stranger is a pleasure. It messes with the pattern-matching engine of anxiety that says that everyone on the 'net is just a troll waiting to spring.
Reply
Reply
I have always thought of the Visitation as (partly*) Mary's retreat to absorb the impact of the Annunciation. And although I haven't been on many retreats, the ones I have been on have often included this kind of unexpected mutual growth in companionship.
My pastor has pointed out that the transformation of Zechariah from successful high priest to speechless stay-at-home will have affected his son, too; that John the Baptist was who he was partly because he was raised by a Zechariah who had experienced it.
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* no one get me started on the Mysteries of the rosary and story structure
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