tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post5697976956570473836..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: CarolAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-17648437954599446932011-01-01T11:51:29.399-05:002011-01-01T11:51:29.399-05:00I didn't mean to sound as if I was criticising...I didn't mean to sound as if I was criticising him particularly on that score. I liked him greatly, Carolyn, and I may have "misunderestimated" him as regards songs and carols. Nor would I insult him by taking his last comment as an expression of his full religious understanding - those summations are good in the movies, but few of us get the luxury of preparing a one-sentence summation just before we die. We have to hope that our general comments are wise enough that they might pass muster as final words.<br /><br />In the Arts-and-Humanities Tribe that we grew up in (counting both family and cultural circles), the sentiment of getting along and not fighting is rather the default religion now. I think the hope is to identify the stripped-down version of faith, the important core worth keeping, letting the rest go. But I don't think that works, ultimately. It ends in ideas that sound like mere platitudes - hardly objectionable in any way - which are actually disguised accusations against people who advocate for anything more specific.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-32881265276408871962011-01-01T02:56:59.931-05:002011-01-01T02:56:59.931-05:00My dad's favorite Christmas carol was actually...My dad's favorite Christmas carol was actually "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem." He did know the difference between carols and songs, although perhaps he didn't choose to acknowledege it at our yearly family Christmas party. He was quite an expert at playing dumb. As for his not being relgious, I am in the not particularly enviable position of having heard what he said about fifteen minutes before dying on Christmas Eve, which was something like, "I just wish people would look down at the earth and see that fighting is wrong and that we all need to live together."<br /><br />That's religious enough for me.Carolynnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-64202759483614183672010-11-24T14:11:04.381-05:002010-11-24T14:11:04.381-05:00Great memories, AVI. Unfortunately no one in my fa...Great memories, AVI. Unfortunately no one in my family could sing a note!Sponge-headed ScienceManhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12914014641719908195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-67801732889323727302010-11-24T01:54:12.278-05:002010-11-24T01:54:12.278-05:00It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone reading h...It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone reading here that I'm not a religious person at all. But I am a family person and most of my family is religious so I'll respect that.<br /><br />But that doesn't mean I have to like everything every church I've been to has done.<br /><br />One in particular wanted to herd my mother and my new baby sister into the new soundproofed nursery they'd just built.<br /><br />That would have been OK with me if they hadn't made it a rule that I couldn't go in there too! I was too old. <br /><br />Too old for the "nursery" but not too old to throw a wall-eyed fit and refuse to go to church at all unless I could sit in the nursery or my mother and sister sit with our family in the congregation.<br /><br />Both the elders of the church and I got our respective ways. My parents brought me to Sunday School, but none of us attended the service following for several months. <br /><br />I have no idea what would have happened had we not moved soon after my conniption fit. <br /><br />The church my parents chose in our new town did not have a nursery. <br /><br />No one has ever accused me of being any sort of role model for anything, but I still prefer places where babies and children are welcome over those where they are not. <br /><br />And I've found over the years that babies and children are welcome at all the best places. (Even the best bars :-)Donna B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16771075314473811594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-41843170498960502352010-11-23T20:53:46.448-05:002010-11-23T20:53:46.448-05:00When we first went to the Lutheran Church when we ...When we first went to the Lutheran Church when we were 23, there were only about 10 children in the whole congregation, 0-18. One of the mothers described feeling self conscious when her daughter was born and was crying in church. A few of the elderly ladies came up after, quite misty, saying "It's been so long since we've heard a baby cry in this church."<br /><br />It's a matter of perspective. I'll bet babies cried when Moses came down with the commandments, too.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-62323936262887581992010-11-23T18:51:10.445-05:002010-11-23T18:51:10.445-05:00That was lovely. I especially enjoyed the baby in ...That was lovely. I especially enjoyed the baby in the congregation. (No sarcasm intended.)Donna B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16771075314473811594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-56378517921136029332010-11-23T08:55:31.864-05:002010-11-23T08:55:31.864-05:00Loring was known to not be especially religious, a...Loring was known to not be especially religious, and just didn't "get it" about the difference between carols and songs.<br /><br />I'm not sure I really understood the difference either until I worked in a grocery store one winter. The "songs" got old after just a couple repeats, while I found that I could listen to the carols much longer without tiring of them. The songs were cute and there wasn't anything wrong with them, but I found an aspect of worship in the carols that the songs were just never intended to have.Kittenhttp://princessmommykitten.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com