(March 15, 2020 at 6:18 pm)Dundee Wrote:(March 14, 2020 at 6:28 pm)Abaddon_ire Wrote: Myself and siblings often ponder why it is that two such devout catholics managed to raise 4 godless heathens
Maybe just because they were too devout?
Well, since they are both long dead I can say what I will about them.
Dad was a strict catholic, but a very quiet and private individual. Thus he held his own beliefs very close. The interesting thing (to me anyway) was that while he slaved away all day as a public servant, by night he was a stage magician. It was not uncommon to have some catholic loon. post performance accost him as a servant of dark powers. This always confused him. It wasn't like he was pretending that this was "real" magic. I operated as "prop-boy" often and saw this. I was just as puzzled. I suppose that I knew the mundane reality behind the illusions as performed. I think it gave him an appreciation of what it really is to have a religious nut rant at you.
Then at one time he attempted to institute a nightly rosary recitation. Somehow, all of us kids had other engagements at just the wrong time. Colour me unsurprised. Then we discovered that it was possible to trap one or more other siblings into being there at the appropriate time. Let the games commence. That was savage. But hilarious both at the time and in hindsight.
He gave up after a few weeks due to lack of attendance. There were no repercussions because that was his way. He knew he could not force anyone to believe as he believed. And he was not the sort to force the issue.
As for Mom, she was a devout believer, headscarf in church, the whole nine yards. But she was always accepting of every colour or flavour of other beliefs. All of them. Even though none of them (bar one) was her own. Her default was to deal with the person as a person, not some bucket of arbitrary faith claims.
And that is it. I had the unhappy task of identifying my mothers corpse in the presence of the cops. I had the unhappy task of finding my father on the deck in his kitchen.
They are gone.
But I love and respect them because they allowed space for us kids to develop and learn and reach our own conclusions despite their own deeply held beliefs.
