Notes from the Pew

We are returning to going to bed before midnight, eating a vegetable or two, and breaking up this incessant togetherness that must have driven families to pick up the wood axe and ponder dark thoughts, back in the day.  I can hear the maniac laughter in the other room that signals my family is still overstimulated from it all.  God Bless the teachers that get them back tomorrow.  Truly.

Today, we returned to church and I taught one combined class to all ages.  These are the Sundays before and after holidays when folks are staggering back from Disney or Vermont and attendance is low.  The students who did come were subdued, probably contemplating their eminent loss of freedom.  I was, oddly enough, quite energetic.  There is no better place to be than pondering metaphysical questions with...anyone but especially young thinkers who don't have their canned response quite figured out:

We started with Joys and Concerns and my son soberly offered up a candle of concern for the rain that was obliterating all the snow we are yearning to be skiing on.  My daughter offered up a candle of joy for her new Ipod.  Comme si, Comme ca.  Then I thought I would get to the heart of it and I asked my students the following:  Why do you come to church?  I also took off the table the stock response of "because my parents make me."  The responses were varied and touching and will remain private because what is said in church stays in church:)  Except for my daughter who said "church is a place I meet people from other cities" and my son who said "church is a place where you get to be mindful" and then my daughter responded with "except my dad who doesn't come to church because he is an atheist" and then my son said "he worships nature" and my daughter, turning to me said "our church allows that, I think."

We came home, all hyped up on theology and my kids asked my husband if he considers himself to be a UU.  He responded with "I am a future UU."  Meanwhile, he spent the morning climbing and seems more at peace than the rest of us.  Go figure.

Go now in peace, go now in peace...may the spirit of love surround you.