Very long answer to a simple question

Chichimama asked me how I happened to become a priest. Anyone who has gone through the process leading to ordination has had to answer variations of this question numerous times, but each time I am asked I find myself reflecting on it myself and reflecting on how to tell the story. Of course there is the short story and the long story, and I think I will tell the long one here, if you will bear with me, because the whole story makes more sense to me set in its context. But if you want the short version, just skip to the last couple of paragraphs.

I am one of an increasingly rare breed, a cradle Episcopalian. Some of my earliest memories involve being at church. I remember the church of my childhood as a comfortable place, a nurturing place, even as a fun place. I remember playing in the pew during services when I was very young, and later Sunday school, Christmas pageants, singing in the children's choir, vacation church school in the summer. For a while my best friend was our priest's daughter. I spent many hours at the rectory and playing on the church play ground. We shared the same first name, and her mother called us Pixie and Dixie....I guess that reference really ages me....but I digress.

We moved from the town of my birth when I was 9--the first of several moves, but we found a new church each place we lived, and being involved in church remained important. I was confirmed when I was 12; at that time one had to be confirmed to receive communion and I wanted that very badly. In retrospect, whatever we were taught at confirmation classes went right over my head, but it was important to me at the time. My family quit going to church when I was in high school, and I was disappointed,actually. When I began dating my high school boyfriend who became tFoMC later, we went to church with his mother right up to the time we got married.

Despite this history of church involvement, I wouldn't have characterized myself as overly religious. I believed in God. I prayed, but mostly self-serving prayer (God, please help me pass this quiz--that type). I would've liked to have been an acolyte, but that wasn't allowed. And because women weren't ordained at the time, it never occurred to me that I might think about being a priest. But there was always some sort of God-connection.

When we were newly married tFoMC and I let church go by the wayside. Like many young couples, we took Sundays as time for ourselves. And because he was in the Navy we didn't settle down in one place. When Elder Son was born we returned to my mother-in-law's church where we were married to have him baptized, and we did the same when LD#1 was born. But about that time, I began thinking about going back to church. Being part of a church had been such a positive experience for me as a child that I wanted that for my children as well. I wanted them raised in a religious tradition even if they didn't choose to embrace it for themselves later. So when we moved to a place where we thought we would be for a few years, we began looking for a church.

And found one, in a most unexpected way. We were living in a place that had many Episcopal churches, and we intended to try several of them. But driving home one day from grocery shopping, I took a wrong turn and ended up on a road that was completely unfamiliar. When I finally found a place to turn around I saw a sign saying "Future home of Saint Somewhere's Episcopal Church" and giving a phone number. Intrigued I wrote the number down and called it when I got home. The congregation was meeting in a local school until its building was completed and we decided to try it. And it was a wonderful experience.

In the five or so years I'd been out of church, a new prayer book had come out. The language was suddenly comprehensible. And women were allowed to have liturgical roles--unimaginable in my childhood. What's more the congregation was welcoming and it quickly became our community. As we got involved I noticed something else. These people took their beliefs seriously. They discussed the Sunday readings. They prayed seriously. They believed all this really mattered in their daily lives.

The time I spent in that parish was life-changing for me. My faith grew. I learned to engage in theological conversations. I thought about what it all meant for my real life. I became friends with J, and her husband W who happened to be the parish priest. I found out that priests were real people like the rest of us. When my life became increasingly stressful I learned what it was like to be part of a supportive community and to have supportive friends.

During those years LD#2 was born, I had an identity crisis and went back to school to earn my BS and I was divorced from tFoMC. Life was complicated but my faith and my community held me in good stead. As I began to find my own voice I took on new roles in church--I read lessons and administered the chalice. I taught an adult Sunday School class. Once or twice I wondered what it would be like to be a priest, but I wasn't ready to let those thoughts go anywhere.

When I finished my BS I moved away to attend grad school. Friends had suggested a church we might like in Gradschool City, and I dutifully took us there as soon as I had all the boxes unpacked. It was without a doubt the most unfriendly church I have ever attended. And I was overloaded with class reading, having naively signed up for five classes my first semester when most of my classmates took only three. So we stopped going to church. It didn't help matters that my grad program had a distinct anti-religion bias. I never meant to give up church entirely, but that is what happened. Oh, I went to a Sunday night folk mass sometimes, but the routine was gone. I rationalized to myself that I didn't really need to go to church every Sunday. When I met and married the Kid's father, we talked about going to church but we never made it. The lovely daughters began to attend the local Baptist church because that's what kids in our small town did (something I really regret, but that is subject of another post perhaps) but I could not go there.

I still thought about God though. One of my office mates in grad school was a vocal atheist. She always maintained that it was just easier NOT to believe in God, any god. We had lots of long thoughtful discussions about God-related and religion-related things. I came to realize that unlike my friend, believing that God is was my default position--easier for me that conceiving of a world without God.

Fast forward a few years. The Kid was born, I finally finished my Ph.D. and took an academic job in Vermont. It was a good move for me, and for my kids, but it was the straw the broke the back of a very weak marriage, and a year later I found myself single-parenting a three-year old and a couple of teenagers. I was working to get out of the financial pit we'd gotten into during that brief marriage and working to get tenure. I was exhausted and stressed out. Having failed at marriage for a second time was very hard for me. It was a very dark period in my life. By this time I had been mostly out of church for 10 years. And for the very first time in my life the doubts about God, about religion, about faith that were sown in my grad school years began to sprout. I didn't question my belief in God, but I certainly questioned the relevance of religion, the validity of what I thought I had believed in.

Lovely Daughter #2 met someone who had a house church and agitated to be allowed to go; something about it set off my alarms, and as she continued to challenge me I thought about finding a church. And I thought about wanting the Kid to have that in his life, too. But I was so full of doubts that it was very very hard to actually do anything about it. Finally we made it to the local Episcopal church on Christmas Eve and I really enjoyed it. But I continued to struggle with what I believed, and it took me until the next summer to get back.

I don't know what finally made me decide to go, but one warm July Sunday the Kid, LD#2 and I went. To my great surprise the priest was a woman--the first time I had ever encountered a woman priest. And I still knew all the words. And the music was great, and people were friendly. We went back the next Sunday. And the next. Inside, however, I was still kicking and screaming. It felt good, in many ways it felt like I had come home, but at the same time I was engaged in an extremely critical inner dialogue.

I've long loved Madeleine L'Engle's writing, both fiction and non-fiction, and I was reading a lot of it at this point. She has a very cosmic theology that really speaks to me. In one of her books she talks specifically about finding God in the world around her, and that really spoke to me. Coincidentally, the first Sunday I went back, the young woman priest preached on finding God in the world around us. Gradually I began to think about God in new ways and to feel God in my life again.

Here's the part that could sound hokey to some people I guess. But it was very real for me. I found myself enfolded in a congregation the could handle my doubts. And gradually almost every one of those doubts was addressed in some way, usually in a way that took me by surprise. I began reading about theology and spirituality. I began to feel like that deep dark hole that had eaten its way through my soul might actually be filled. I felt like I had come home. I was in a congregation that was both politically and and theologically progressive and as I became involved with outreach and social justice ministries I realized how deeply my values were rooted in the social gospel. I felt God acting in my life and I began wondering what I was supposed to do with all this.

This all happened over a fairly short period of time, and it took me by surprise. I was getting ready to go up for tenure, and I thought I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. But gradually I began to feel like there was something else I was called to do. I never had a dramatic moment, a bolt from heaven that said, "you should become a priest" but as I tried to figure out what all this meant for my life, that was the dawning awareness that came to me. It started to feel like something I couldn't not pursue.

My parish priest was on sabbatical which gave me time to mull over this for a while. But as soon as he returned I made an appointment to talk to him. I wasn't sure I could say the words "I think I am called to become a priest" out loud, and I was sure that if I did he would laugh. But in fact, I did and he didn't. He took me quite seriously.

In the Episcopal church one cannot just decide to become a priest. There is a long period of discernment during which one must elaborate on one's sense of call with the parish priest, with fellow parishioners, with a diocesan committee and with the bishop. It's a long and sometimes painful process. Mine took place at the same time I was preparing and submitting my tenure file and that felt a bit schizophrenic. I received tenure before I was approved to go forward towards priesthood. People asked me how I could give that up, and it did give me pause because it had been the focus of my life for so long. But when the time came, it wasn't actually all that hard.

I was approved as a postulant for Holy Orders in September 2001--just days after the attack on the World Trade Center. I started seminary in September 2002. When I started grad school 15 years earlier, someone had told me that those would be the best years of my life and I often thought about how much that was NOT so. But seminary was different. I so felt like I was in the right place doing what I was supposed to be doing. I sometimes wish that all this would've happened when I was a bit younger, but I really think that I needed to go through everything I went through to be ready to do what I am doing now. And I feel really lucky, really blessed to able to do what I am doing now.

A Crass Political Ploy

The lame duck governor of this fair state has decided to press forward on a controversial issue to advance his own political agenda. Mitt Romney is asking the state supreme court to order a referendum on same-sex marriage (a constitutional amendment prohibiting it) on the ballot because the legislature failed to vote on the measure before adjourning until January. This is in a state where same-sex marriage is already legal--because the courts ruled that it was a justice issue, that it was discriminatory to deny marriage rights to same-sex couples.

I don't know whether such an amendment would pass in MA after several years of legal same-sex marriage. But really, matters of justice shouldn't be put to a popular vote. If the southern states had been given the opportunity to vote on civil rights in the sixties I hate to think where we'd be now.

Moreover, Romney is doing this just to garner attention from conservative Republicans as he tests the waters for a presidential run. Gack. I don't know how he was elected governor of this liberal state (I wasn't living here then), and certainly hope his presidential ambitions are thwarted.

I might as well get it out of my system now....

Arghhh....it's starting already. Tonight driving home from some errands I spotted the first Christmas decorations on houses in the neighborhood. Before Thanksgiving. Bah!

I'm a bit of a Scrooge about Christmas. On several levels. I hate the commercialization of the holiday. I hate the materialism. I hate that things have to start earlier and earlier each year. I hate that what was a religious holiday has been co-opted and then foisted on the world in a way the makes it devoid of its original meaning. I hate the way a Christian feast day (and not the most important one at that) is promoted as THE HOLIDAY OF THE YEAR for everyone regardless of their religious tradition. I hate pseudo-Christmas music (Jingle Bells is NOT a Christmas song. I'm just saying) and Christmas carols played non-stop beginning at Halloween.

All that is the macro level of my Scroogishness...

On the micro-level, the personal level, I have a history of stressful Christmases...Christmases where tFoMC was at sea (three in a row) and I had to do it all on my own. Christmases after we separated when I wasn't sure how I was going to afford even modest presents for the kids, and I still had to do it on my own--it always worked out, but it was always stressful. Christmases when I had to share the kids with their dad, including the Christmas I spent all alone all day because my car needed an unexpected repair the day I was supposed to go away, and there was an ice storm (in Florida!) the next day. And there were the Christmases I spent with my parents (because isn't Christmas the quintessential family time?) each marked by at least one huge blow up with my mom that left me feeling awful.

I'm trying to get over my Christmas baggage, to adopt a new model of Christmas. I don't go "home" for Christmas any more, even though staying away just adds to my status as the blacksheep in my family. I've minimized the whole gift giving routine--I enjoy buying gifts when there is less pressure about doing so. I try to embrace Advent as a season--I have Advent calendars and an Advent wreath, and I continue my tradition of not putting up tree until Dec. 22 or so. I enjoy the memories involved with our large collection of Christmas ornaments--one bought for each child for each year, perhaps my favorite family tradition. This year for the first time in a while I will have a large family gathering at my house, and because Christmas Eve is on Sunday (the worst possible day for clergy), some of them will take over the cooking chores. I'm looking forward to it.

Nonetheless this time of year, when all the hoopla starts I get cranky. The stores are full of Christmas stuff, the decorations are sprouting, the bad music has started, and it's not Thanksgiving yet. Sigh.....

Draft??

The news today is reporting that Rep. Charles Rangel D-NY will introduce a bill to reinstate the draft when Congress reconvenes next year. Not everyone would have to serve in the military--there would be options for community service as well. But Rangel believes that having a draft would deter politicians going to war. He argues that Bush would never have invaded Iraq had a draft been in place.

I am adamantly opposed to the draft, and I think this notion that it would be a deterrent to war is based on specious reasoning. Rangel says that no one in Congress would vote to support a war if there wasa chance that constituents or children of constituents might be killed. That certainly hasn't been the case in previous wars.

I wrote my high-school senior term paper on why we shouldn't have a draft (at the time we did). For a while I thought that a universal draft in which the military was just one option among many might be okay. When I was teaching I met many first year students who might have benefited from a year or two off before starting college. A year of community service of some sort might provide an opportunity for growth, a time off from studying for a while, a time to gain some perspective and to think more about the future.

But I'm not sure the draft is the answer. I don't think ANYONE should be forced to serve in the military against their will. And I'm not sure I trust our government at this time to set up a system that would make military service truly optional, truly one choice among many.

What think you, readers? Should we have a draft of any sort? Why?

Convocation

I spent yesterday and today at the annual Convocation of the Episcopal Church's Province I, which is comprised of the dioceses of Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Western Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. These gatherings are theme based, and this year's theme was "Our Story, God's Story." Unlike many big church meetings, this one was designed to be completely intergenerational, with activities appropriate for all ages, and with children completely incorporated into the liturgy. Our time together was filled with greeting of friends (including at least one blogger on my blogroll), provocative talks about how to make the church a place that truly welcomes children and youth, browsing displays and the bookstore and sharing joy-filled worship, complete with gifted story-tellers, toddling babies, drumming and song.

It was really wonderful to spend time with a group of Episcopalians who are positive about the church, who are focused on the mission of the church rather than all the controversies the church is embroiled in. The Episcopal Church in New England is small compared to others--especially the UCC and Roman Catholics. But it is remarkably energetic and progressive. The seven New England dioceses have elected five women bishops since 1988 (including +Barbara Harris, Bishop Suffragan of MA and the first woman bishop in the Anglican Communion ever, and +Mary Adelia McLeod of Vermont, the first woman diocesan bishop).

I enjoyed hearing some of the bishops talk about how they see teaching as part of their vocation--and was I ever impressed with Bp. Knudsen of Maine; I've heard good things about her before, but never met her until this weekend--and hearing teens talk about how we can help them feel more a part of the church. But perhaps the most fun session I went to was one about how to put on a U2 eucharist (U2charist). Given the age of my congregation, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to do, but I hope I can attend one sometime.

And the Episcopal Church really is a small world. It is impossible to go to an event like this without making all sorts of six degrees (or less) of separation connections between people you know--always fun.

Now I'm going to peruse the books I bought there...

Happy Birthday...

to the Kid, who turns 15 today....

who celebrated by seeing the new James Bond flick last night with his friends....

who spent the afternoon playing poker with said friends....

who is now IMing said friends while working out new guitar riffs.

My little boy has grown up.

Because I Don't Have Time for a Real Post

and this is kinda funny.....as seen at Quaker Pastor's

What is your inner musical instrument?

You're an Oboe. Girl power?
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Random Bits of November

• It's been unbelievably warm here the last couple of days; it makes it hard to realize that it is the middle of November. Shouldn't it be frosty out, with snowflakes threatening?
  

• The big windstorm we had a couple of weeks ago knocked most of the rest of the leaves off the trees, but there is one tree in my side yard that still has the most incredible red leaves. I should try to get a picture before they all fall off. I think it is a Japanese Maple; during the spring and summer the leaves are a dark burgundy, but now they are a brilliant crimson.

• Last night just after dark I was driving down my driveway when a deer ran right in front of me. We've had lots of wildllife here, but that is the first deer I've seen.
  

• I know that Thanksgiving is next week, but I'm still in denial about Christmas being right around the corner. I had to run in the mall tonight (Gah!) though and all the decorations reminded me again.

• Teh mall decorations, they are ugly. Really ugly. In their effort to be generic holiday they are just dumb. And ugly

• The days are really really short. I'm not so bothered by the darkness, but it is always a shock to look at my watch and see that it is only 4:00 and then notice that is nightfall is approaching.

• One of my Christmas cacti is blooming. The other one probably won't bloom til February or March if previous years are any indication. So why the heck do we call them "Christmas cactuese? (cacti???)
  

Competence, Confidence and Conceit

This is an edited version of a post that has been sitting in my draft folder for more than a month, and floating in my head for longer than that....

For all of my adult years I have struggled with feelings of incompetence, with fears of not measuring up, with the "imposter syndrome," with, as Phantom Scribbler would put it, the whole inadequacy schitck. Years of therapy and self-reflection have given me some insights into why I feel this way and experiencing some measure of success in what I've attempted has eased this a bit, but these feelings still linger somewhere just below the surface, ready to bubble up into my consciousness. I can still remember how it feels to be afraid to offer an opinion, sure that it is worthless, that something I think must be stupid, to be sure that I'm going to mess up somehow, that I'm bound to fail. And I still have my mother to remind me at least once a year that I'm selfish, that I don't really "get it", that if I were really any good as a psychologist/priest my life wouldn't be such a mess (she never uses those exact words, but that is the gist).

Recently, these feelings have been complicated by a new twist: what I can only describe as a fear of feeling too competent. As much as I want to be a good writer and a good preacher and a good teacher, I squirm a bit when people compliment me on sermons or on something I've written for the newsletter or on a class I've led. I love the affirmation but I somehow feel like I shouldn't. When does confidence in one's abilities cross the line into conceit? If I feel good about my abilities, do I risk overlooking my weaknesses, the places where I need to change? Am I really "competent" or am I just fooling myself and others? (ah... there's that inadequacy schtick rearing its ugly head again.) I wonder, too, how much my struggles with feeling competent and confident are gender based? Do women worry more about these things? Or is this just my particular neurosis?

Why can't I just relax and feel good about what I do well without all the angst?

In a Word

The meme of the moment, as seen at profgrrrl's...

You can only type one word. No explanations.

1. Yourself: work-in-progress
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend: nonexistent
3. Your hair: silver
4. Your mother: difficult
5. Your father: smart
6. Your favorite item: camera
7. Your dream last night: friend
8. Your favorite drink: dietlimecoke
9. Your dream car: none
10. The room you are in: dusty
11. Your ex: jerk
12. Your fear: flying
13. What you want to be in 10 years: happy
14. Who you hung out with last night: myself
15. What you're not: rich
16. Muffins: blueberry
17: One of your wish list items: MacBook
18: Time: fleeting
19. The last thing you did: dishes
20. What you are wearing: jammies
21. Your favorite weather: fall
22. Your favorite book: L'Engle
23. The last thing you ate: chocolate
24. Your life: evolving
25. Your mood: reflective
26. Your best friend (s): elsewhere
27. What are you thinking about right now: life
28. Your car: bug
29. What are you doing at the moment: blogging
30. Your summer: fun
31. Your relationship status: alone
32. What is on your tv: none
33. What is the weather like: gray
34. When is the last time you laughed: today

An Embarrassing Moment

MC asked me to describe an embarrassing moment from my past. Oh, there have been many, but this is the first one that comes to mind.

The summer I was 14 I went to the lake with my best friend and her family. It must have been Fourth of July weekend. Going to the lake was not something we usually did, and it must have been a special event. At any rate, her older brother and some of his friends were there, too. Someone offered to teach us to water ski--something I had never done. So off we went in the boat--me, my friend, her brother and his friends, and her father--maybe some other adult, too. My friend went first and after a few tries was doing pretty well. Then it was my turn. I had on a two-piece bathing suit, the top of which fastened with two buttons in the back. The second or third time I was trying to get up on the skis, just when I thought I had it, I felt an alarming pop! as the buttons flew off my top, and my top fell off. And I fell in the water very quickly, completely MORTIIED. My friend jumped in the water and swam to me and helped me tie my top together, but that was the end of water skiing for me!


Chichimama, I'll anwer your question tomorrow or the next day. Anymore questions, anyone?

It's 11:30...

...and I haven't posted yet today.

It has been a relatively quiet Sunday. Sermon well-received , no stressful moments at church. This afternoon I felt restless and thought I would get some work done by writing some articles for the newsletter. But after walking down to the church to pick up some notes, I decided to lie on the couch for a while before beginning, and that was the end of that--I took a looooong nap instead.

Apparently that still wasn't enough, because after dinner when I sat down to read blogs and then write, I dozed off again, one of those on-again, off-again dozes where you aren't really sound asleep, but you aren't awake enough to do anything either. So in a moment I am off to bed.

A couple of blogs I've read (and I'm too lazy/tired to get the links now) have solicited questions from the blogosphere, so to prompt my blogging this coming week I am doing likewise: Dear readers, anything you'd like to know? Of course I reserve the right to stretch the truth as necessary!

It's things like this

that make all the trying parts of parenting seem worth it. I'm just saying.

Saturday Stuff

• When is a retreat not a retreat? When it's for work and about work. It's "in" I guess to call what are extended staff meetings "retreats." We had one today at my boss' home. I'd been dreading it--mostly just because of the time it would take up. But it really was fine. We all had done a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and talked about what the results meant for how we interact as a staff and how we see ourselves in our jobs. My type (INFP) hasn't changed since the first time I did the MBTI 20 years ago, but where I fall on each scale has moved a bit. This is the first time I've ever had any E points (I"ve always been off the scale I but this time I had 5 E points--out of 28 so still not many) and I had no J points at all for the first time. Not sure that is a really good thing, but there it is.
• One good thing is that ever since our really tense exchange last Sunday, my boss has been making an effort to communicate better. And that makes me a whole lot easier to get along with. It's been a pretty hectic week with a fair share of crises to deal with so I am grateful for any improvement in the work atmosphere.
  
• I don't know how to break the habit of writing sermons at the last minute. I try to start them sooner, but somehow the words never gel until I am under some time pressure. I've always worked that way, and I plan things accordingly, but sometimes I think it would be really nice to be able to say on Thursday or Friday that I was finished with the sermon. At least I only preach every other week--that I like.
• Not sure what we're doing for Thanksgiving yet. I'm not stressed about not being sure, but every once in a while I realize that most of the world doesn't wait until the very last minute to make decisions about things like this.
• From now til January I will hate more than usual having to go into stores. Too much Christmas way too early. I quickly turn into Scrooge. I hate the secularization and commercialism of Christmas.
• After 10 days of NaBloPoMo I realize I like the discipline of knowing I am committed to writing something (anything?) everyday. I don't know that the quality of what I write has improved any, but there is still over half a month to go. It will be interesting to see how things change at the end of the month.
• The Kid will be 15 next week. November through January is birthday time at chez Rev. Dr. Mom--LD#2, the Kid, me, and LD#1 spaced out over that time. We're not big celebrators, and I feel badly about that sometimes. My kids definitely got the short end of the stick when it came to birthday parties. So did I for that matter.
  
• The Kid turning 15 makes me feel old. And it means that in a year we have to deal with the whole driving thing. And I am NOT GOOD with the whole driving thing.
  
• Monday we (the staff) are painting the church office. Which means another week with insufficient time off. Of course I can take compensatory time, but finding a way to work that in proves to be VERY difficult. I didn't volunteer for this job and it's a bit annoying that I'm expected to show up for it. Plus I'm a crappy painter.
  
• It's been interesting watching how things have unfolded since the election. On the Diane Rehm show Friday they were talking about how Bush had already decided to ditch Rumsfeld when he made that big statement about keeping him around til the end of this administration. Some have argued that it would've helped the Republicans if Bush had ditched him sooner; I don't know but I find Bush's prevarication interesting.
• Nancy Pelosi for President? I could get behind that . Or a Pelosi/Obama ticket--in either order.
  

This is a test...

I tried to open my blog and there is NOTHING there. But when I go to the bloger dashboard, it looks like everything is there. Weird. So this is a test ...

Edited to add: It's back, wherever it went ....so you can all ignore this inane post.

It's a Small (Blogger) World

Once upon a time, I started a blog. I chose to blog anonymously with mixed feelings, but once I began writing, it seemed like the right choice. Of course as bloggers do, I also revealed my identity to other bloggers as I got to "know" them.

My older daughter (LD#1) who lives far far away also started a blog. Hers is not anonymous, and she uses it tell people about her life there. I read it but never commented on the blog b/c I didn't want to join Friendster, but she knew that I read it. When LD#1 was here last spring she was using my computer and found my blog. I was a little taken aback, but the cat was out of the bag so to speak. And LD#1 wasted no time telling LD#2, my younger daughter about the blog. I knew from my sitemeter that LD#2 was reading, and eventually we began talking about various blogs and posts.

A few weeks ago LD#2 posted at Phantom's whining ball using her real name. You should get a blogger name, I said to her. Oh, maybe sometime I will she said back to me. And that was the end of it, even though I didn't see her name around anymore.

So today we're talking on the phone and I asked her something and she says, you can read about it on my blog. Really? You have a blog? She wouldn't tell me what it was, but it only took me about 30 seconds to find it. And it's a good blog. And she's had it since September?! I've been reading her comments on other blogs without knowing it was her.

Perhps our secrecy with each other is indicative of the weird family we come from. Or maybe it's just our individual desires to have our own voices. But I'm here to say, we are all out now. And you know who we all are. It's a small small (blogging) world.

PS Elder Son, if you're reading too, would you just let me know? The Kid, he's not interested.

The Day After

• I went to bed last night and woke up this morning listening to NPR's election coverage. What a wonderful feeling to hear election news that isn't totally depressing! Deval Patrick as governor! Democrats take the House, and make gains in the Senate! Bernie Sanders elected to the Senate! Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House!
• I am totally psyched about the change in power in Congress but it is also too bad that moderate Republicans like Lincoln Chaffee are among those who got booted. Chaffee sounds more Democratic than some of the Democrats (I am a bit alarmed by the reports of pro-life and pro-gun Democrats being elected). I wonder at his allegiance to a party whose positions he is clearly out of sync with.
  
• And then to hear that Rumsfeld is out! WOW. Wasn't it just a few days ago that Bush was saying that he wanted Rumsfeld and Rove to stay for the rest of his term. If only we could get rid of Rove and Cheney, too...
• I intentionally avoid listening to Bush and his gang in press conferences, speeches, etc. I just can't stand it. But just a little while ago NPR played some clips of Rumsfeld talking to the press. I'm sure they were chosen to make this point, but jeez, he sounds like as much of an idiot as Bush. (Why am I surprised by this?)
• Now we need a viable presidential candidate for 2008. I am surprisingly lukewarm about Hillary Clinton. I say surprisingly because I used to be one of her biggest fans. But frankly, she's become more conservative than I'm comfortable with. Is it too soon for Barack Obama?
• There is a fairly well documented trend of people becoming more conservative as they grow older, but I am living proof that it's only a trend. I was raised a liberal and the older I get, the lefter I get. In many ways I'm a socialist at heart. Which may explain why I'm a fan of Bernie Sanders and not so much of Hillary Clinton.
  
• Voters in Massachusetts defeated a proposition that would allow grocery stores to sell wine. I don't get the uproar over this. Everywhere else I've lived you could buy beer and wine at the grocery store....but in Massachusetts you have to go to the "packie." Of course the packies funded a major campaign against this proposition because they don't want to lose business, but I am still surprised that it is controversial.
  

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The South That's a Southern accent you've got there. You may love it, you may hate it, you may swear you don't have it, but whatever the case, we can hear it.
Philadelphia
The Midland
The Northeast
The Inland North
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

This surprises me not at all, since I was born and raised in the South. Of course, any Southerner will tell you that there is more than one kind of Southern accent, and I think mine is fairly faint and regionally indistinct these days--but still detectable. And my word choices are perhaps more Southern than my accent, although New England has rubbed off on me a bit, and you are likely to hear me say "wicked" and "y'all" in the same sentence, which freaks out some people.

Not Bad for a Southern Girl

As seen at Phantom Scribbler's place:

Dude! You're 92% from Massachusetts!

Dude! Me and Sully and Fitzie and Sean are gonna hit Landsdowne tonight after the game, hang out at the Beerworks. I'll pick you up at the Coop at 6.

How Massachusetts are you?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Election Day Rambling #2--Religion and Politics

Linking one's religious beliefs to one's political values seems almost to be a requirement for candidates these days. Of course, the trend emerged with the much-taunted link between Evangelical Christians and conservative Republicans during the last Presidential campaign. Now moderate Democrats are beginning to appeal to religious values as well.

As a religious person, as a priest, I find this troubling. While I believe that my values are grounded in my religious beliefs, I don't assume that one must share my religious beliefs to share my values, or vice versa, for that matter. Nor do I believe that I, as a religious leader, ought to be imposing my political values on those who look to me for spiritual guidance. I am not shy about teaching, about talking about what I see as the link between the two FOR ME but that's as far as it goes.

A friend writes about this in a compelling op-ed piece. She says, in part:

One common characteristic of the Democratic appropriation of religion in political discourse is a reluctance to impose one's own specific religious beliefs on the public good, even in the presence of the assertion that commitment to religious and ethical beliefs serves the public good.

She goes on to address the appropriation of the concept of "family values" by conservatives, especially conservative Christians. She says:

We can all agree that marriage between a man and a woman is integral to family values and that it has social and religious sanctions. And there are also social and religious sanctions for other models embodying family values. Our lived experience and our religious traditions tell us that there isn't in fact a single model of a family and its values that our politicians or we can idolize. Look around at our own examples: single-parent families, families of grandparents raising grandchildren, blended families, adopted children, single people, same-sex couples with or without children, and nuclear families. Look at all the different households described in the Bible from the patriarchs to Jesus' own: Abraham's included his wives Sarah and Hagar with their children Isaac and Ishmael together with Abraham's concubine Keturah and her six children. God promises that through Abraham's descendants all the other nations of the earth would be blessed. In Jesus' time households continued to be diverse: the sisters Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus constituted a household, Paul was a single man and Jesus was the child of a single parent.

She goes on to say:

Different models of households in religious traditions provide a warrant for the diverse patterns of our own families. The recognition of a broad spectrum of household arrangements mandates that we affirm and celebrate in our civic and religious lives patterns of family life that differ from ours. Diverse families share similar values: blended or traditional, same-sex or single-parent households all know, for example, that forgiveness is the glue necessary to bind families together. This is not to deny that living out forgiveness is hard work. Nor is it to exclude the possibility that some forms of families may be "tares in amongst the wheat" to be left until the final harvest. But to err on the side of generosity and magnanimity by including and celebrating different models of families and their values is both to affirm our own experience and to identify a more complex and more honest religious tradition, wherein God models consummate generosity and magnanimity. When we link this reality to the recognition that judgment is God's and not our own, we will have honest public debates on family values.

All too frequently lately I've felt like I need to apologize for Christians--it feels to me that the harsh judgmentalism and intolerance of right-wing Christians casts a bad light on all of us who consider ourselves Christian. I want to say, "We're not all like that!" I am especially appreciative of this work that points out the weaknesses in the "family values" arguments made by the Christian right.