(Untitled)

[nickelchief]

I went for a walk tonight at sunset and six thousand things occurred to me. Let's go through them, one by one, until all four of you have removed me from your Friends list. Except, probably, for shemshade who I hear finally succumbed to an overdose of "Soft Scrub

Comments

[gurdonark]

How interesting. It seems like the "visiting minister" sermons I used to hear were often "gee, even though there is no God, isn't this a nice sanctuary?"

[nickelchief]

Much of the little lecture she gave seemed to be less about spirituality and community and more about how great Unitarians are. It had a self-satisfied tone that didn't sit well with me.

Who knows, maybe the regular guy will have some fire in his belly. I'll keep you posted.

[gurdonark]

Do you have a Friends' church in your town? That is another alternative, and Quakers are much less boastful, near as I can tell :).

[nickelchief]

It's an intriguing suggestion ... Northampton, about half an hour south, is more populous and diverse than Northfield, and has its own Friends Meeting every Sunday morning. Hmmm. Would I actually make the half-hour drive on a sleepy Sunday? How long a journey is too long for worship? Forty years of wandering through the desert, or thirty minutes on the interstate?

[sun_set_bravely]

I have no doubt that you could rock the hell out of that song on air guitar.

[nickelchief]

I have!

[sun_set_bravely]

I want a bootleg copy of that recording!

[kenhighcountry]

I like this post so much that I can (almost) forgive your Tori Amos admission.
After living for centuries, I discovered that at the root and heart of it all, I'm just a Jewish kid from Brooklyn. I may build things on top of it, but that's where it all starts. I spent decades reinventing myself, but he never went away, and now I'm glad he didn't.

[nickelchief]

If I were Tori Amos' trial lawyer in the Court of Good Taste, she would lose, and badly. I'd call a few too many angst-ridden teenage girls to the stand, and they'd weep and give incomprehensible testimony.

But I do believe it's possible to assemble, say, one solid CD-length collection of her best work, which can be, in the right light, quite breathtaking. Really!

And I like what you say about reinvention. But I wonder just how many centuries you've been alive, exactly. I mean, you don't look a day over 392.

[schpahky]

I loved this. It's been a while since I've seen you just meander. You do it so well.

The guest pastor didn't really say "happified"...did she? Please say no.

At least that's good news about the couple. Maybe you'll form a Church of What's Happening Now.

Incidentally, whether I like it or not, my future as a writer/teacher is staked on my being a white suburban girl whose family never quite fit and who used to pretend to be a wolf. If I can't walk the talk, I can't expect anyone else to. All you've got is your own story.

[nickelchief]

It was kind of a wandering yarn, wasn't it. Hard for me to write like that, to be open and free from structure.

And yes, she did say "happified" about a dozen times in fifteen minutes.

What you and tafkak say here sounds very similar. You are two raconteurs in a raconteurpod.

[creamypants]

I think this is why Tori is sort of a headphones girl. It's hard to come out of that closet. Albeit I have to listen to her on headphones because nobody in my house can stand her 'breathy voice and opaque lyrics'.

What was my point, I don't have one... and I've never had religion either. So I am envious of that. I remember going to Baptist Church for a year with my boyfriend after his mother was in a car accident. I liked the tea and cake in the basement afterwards the most. One day I took the bread they passed around and I put it in my mouth. I was told, afterwards, it was a mistake because I had not been baptized and I felt _allofasudden_ all eyes burning in my direction and setting my mouth on fire.

My being feels so 'outside of' organized religion though I want that feeling of belonging. My dad was buddhist and read a lot of sufi poetry. He also played guitar.

[nickelchief]

Are you thinking of raising the boys in any kind of tradition? It can be hard to find the right community, especially if (like you, I'm guessing) you're not part of a big city and your options are somewhat limited. Northfield's not big enough for Sufis, though we have plenty of Baptists (their church is the scariest-looking church in town).

It makes me miss NYC, where the Sufis and the Buddhists and the Catholics and the Rastafarians all live next door to one another.

[creamypants]

We were married, outdoors, by a United Church minister who drank a beer before he performed the service. There's a huge United Church downtown with pretty stained glass windows - I've been wanting to check it out. You can tell my church choosings are really not based on much. I find it hard when celebrating things like Christmas or Easter to just let it be about presents and chocolate and I would at the very least like to steep them in good stories with meaningful values, but I'm afraid to limit them to christianity.

Suffice to say I'm muddled.