social interactions

[seamusog]

A message:

{insert something bad that happening to someone}. Please pray for him/her/them.I am never sure how to reply to these kinds of things. My natural reaction is to say, "I don't pray", but it's such a callous thing to say in the face of their tragedy and saying, "oh that's too bad" is trite and lying ("I'll keep them in my prayers") just

Comments

[neocloud9]

I usually respond with "I'll be sending positive energy" or "I'll keep them in my thoughts"...

[seamusog]

See I am really bad at this social thing. I like that- "I'll keep them in my thoughts". I'll train myself to use it. And I will try not to think about things like what is the expected duration of brain activity to qualify as 'keeping them in my thoughts' and I will not think about feeling guilty if I failed to keep my end of the bargain.

[neocloud9]

Don't worry about it. Sending positive energy only takes moments! Then you can go about your business knowing all is well. c:

[kgsandbear]

"I'll keep them in my thoughts," I guess?

Yeah, I hate the social thing too.

Are you religious at all? Just curious. I'm not, and you may be the only other Filipino I've met who isn't.

[seamusog]

I think I'm closest to being agnostic. I still say I'm Catholic, I go to church sometimes which I like doing. But I think I'm only going because it's familiar and it feels like home and I like the songs. I kinda treat the church as a cultural thing and not a religious thing. I study the bible for its historical and literary significance.

This past summer, we attended a Filipino party and they had a novena and boy was that painful. It was really hard not to laugh out loud at those 'prayers'. I think I did make a comment of how Mary can't have eternal rest with all these 'Pray for us, pray for us, pray for us' litanies going on. I kinda wanted to lecture them and say, "you know what, instead of asking dead people to pray for you, why don't you go look at yourself and look around you, and DO something". God, I hate it when people say things like 'God will provide for me'. No, you idiots! God gave you the tools to help yourself. And I am just guessing here, but he probably did that so that you can help yourself.

[batty_gal]

I understand, I'm not religious and often I'm faced with those "pray for X" comments.

Like kgsandbear and neocloud9, I usually just go "I'll keep them in my thoughts".

[seamusog]

Yeah, I'm going to go with "I'll keep them in my thoughts".

[chalp]

I don't really pray either. Usually I just say "hope that person gets well soon" or something like that.