So, even though my daughter and I are mostly pagan and my husband and son are mostly agnostic, I’ve told my kids as they’ve grown to respect faith.
Be kind to the faithful. You can despise dogma all you want–dogma is the language of the persecutors, the power hungry, the abusers looking for an excuse to abuse. Faith is the language of those who find kindness in the divine. Respect faith. It doesn’t have to be your faith, but respect it.
It’s become a family credo, of sorts, which is why, as some of you may remember, I didn’t throw out that box full of WWJD pins accidentally delivered with my M/M romance swag a few years back. I waited for the Witnesses to knock on my door and I gave it to them. A little funny? Yes. But also not contemptuous.
So, I had to remind myself of that as I pulled up this morning after dropping the kids off, because there were two JW ladies coming from my porch.
The dogs were going apeshit, but seriously– what am I going to do, let Geoffie loose and scream “RELEASE THE HOUNDS!” while she runs off to lick them to death?
So I got out of the car, reminding myself of what I so often told the kids: Be kind to the faithful.
And the lady who led the duo said, “Hi! Don’t I know you? Oh yes– you’re in my aqua class!”
And we had a lovely conversation about aqua, and about dogs. She showed me her pamphlet, and I let her finish her speech about scripture before giving the pamphlet back and saying, “No thanks, sweetheart, I’m pagan.”
“Well, I appreciate your honesty.”
And I walked them back to their car while the dogs peed on all the things as we went.
It was a good lesson, though. The red plague visited my uterus last night, and (as evidenced by last night’s blog) I was of a mind to be a big flaming twat, if I say so myself. But kindness is so much better for us. It was even better for Geoffie, who got fondled and adored and made much of. Even if we don’t agree with a person’s faith, if it is true faith, being kind towards it can only make the world an easier place in which to live.
Lecture over. I shall return to my Oreos and my twatdom now–and try to remember to spare a little kindness for my children, who may have remembered how to brush their teeth and put sheets on their bed by now.
