While I was having a conversation with my brother tonight, he stopped me dead in my tracks when he said he thanked god for helping him through these times. Despite the theological truce I called with Fran I Am (great blog BTW...she's a spiritual pip), I could not help but lay into him about the absurdity of such beliefs.
I won't go into it here. You've heard the story before. But being the little brother to this older brother, I could not help but think of that little kid, Warren Wallace, in those Geico car insurance commercials. This one is my favorite:
Rest assured. However spirited I was in refuting his god arguments, the story didn't end with me putting him in a wall. I couldn't. He was on the phone.
One More Article / Un Altro Articolo
-
Over the years teaching at La Scuola d’Italia NY, I have learned that
children are not just students; they are careful observers of the world,
full of q...
6 months ago
Oh who am I to throw down the gauntlet but I shall, my darling Sparatcus...
ReplyDeleteIf you want him or me or anyone to accept your position (which you know I do, can't speak for the bro) why can't you accept his?
It may be absurd to you, that's fine. Am I to be worried about Thursday?
That's a joke baby, the Thursday part, but I am curious indeed.
No worries for Thursday. I was merely chastising myself for, once again, proselytizing on the issue of non-faith.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if you read it, but this "Redux" post makes much more sense when you read the one previous.
You see, talking too much is a family trait as not listening enough is our family shame. As I walking and talking to him last night, I cherry-picked and judged him on his "thank god" comment. As much as I feel I have good reasons for doing so, it was wrong to change the flow of our conversation to accommodate my sentiments. You see, the story almost ended with me putting him in a wall. OB saw what was happening and asked me to "shut the fuck up."
I so wish I had a frame of reference for this kind of thing myself. Being an only child I can't imagine what it would be like to know that another human shares that much DNA with me, much less the knowledge of what it's like to have my parents.
ReplyDeleteStill, I do know that in my extended family (maybe its a PR thing) it's expected that people yack on until someone interrupts them and so on.
And the god thing ... the only person that close who would say something like that is my mother. And she does. A lot. But I just let it slide. I gave up having that argument with her over 20 years ago.
She was trying to explain that things like the virgin birth and god's existence were "proven." Which led to me explaining what "faith" is supposed to be.
Which led to her changing the subject.
Oh Spartacus, the words- as they so often do(maybe we were separated at birth?) fly out of my mouth and into the comments box.
ReplyDeleteThen I left, drove back downstate and am rereading and have read the other bit.
Got it!
Cliff-
ReplyDeleteAs the saying goes, the fruit never falls far from the tree. Honestly, I do count myself fortunate to be from a big family because you can benefit from the experiences of your siblings -- both good and bad experiences.
As for the arguing god thing with family, I'm beginning to understand where I can get out of line with this stuff. But that's more a product of me hammering a point home to oblivion than it does with actually convincing someone of it. I have this way of "putting people into a wall" with my words and I'm beginning to understand why that's not always a good thing to do.
Spartacus, o Spartacus... where art thou Spartacus?
ReplyDeleteHa. You're funny. Can't have too many smart funny athiests on my blogroll. I'm a Quaker and I found you through Fran's blog...
ReplyDeleteAdding you right now...
Welcome blue gal and thanks. I suppose one good blog rolling deserves another. Consider yourself added.
ReplyDelete