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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Krowbar who wrote (13486)	11/3/1997 11:20:00 AM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Del, I guess my real problem is understanding just what is a gig!!?? Is it an instrument that just stuns the fish, so you can throw it in a bucket where it dies a horrible, terrifying death by suffocation, or is a gig an actual spear-sort of weapon, where you rip the flesh open with a searing stab to a vital organ, and the fish is quiveringly impaled on the gig, bleeding to death quickly while shock hopefully sets in? That was a good question about moral values and paganism. When Briana was a toddler I got her a beautiful picture book with the prayers of many cultures, including Buddhist and African and American Indian ones, but most of them were Christian. Some of the prayers were beautiful, as were the colorful illustrations, and the book appealed to me. I wanted her to understand the concept that most people were comforted by spirituality of some sort--that it seemed to be a human need to believe there was more than what we see in temporal reality, and that there were many paths from which to choose. She was totally uninterested in the book!!! Even though she loved to be read to, she would never choose that one after the first time. She was also offered the opportunity to attend a Unitarian church her friend went to, which was essentially Christian but open and curious, pantheistic in its outreach, with wonderful poetry and art programs in the Sunday school. She didn't want to do that, either, and has decided after careful thought that she will not apply to any Catholic college preparatory schools even though her best friends are going to one of them, because of the requirement of daily Mass even for non-Catholic students, which seems like opportunistic brainwashing to me, and probably to her as well. I have stressed to Briana that although she can choose her own religious beliefs, it is important that if she is going to be a writer or teach--her two current career ideas--she needs to understand the history of religion in order to enjoy much of art and literature, which were heavily laden with religion in their creation. At the same time, our house is filled with goddess sculptures and pagan art and music, and I am exposing her to the pagan underpinnings of holidays by reading about them with her, and gathering branches and berries in the forest, making wreaths, celebrating nature. At the moment she is very curious about witchcraft in its positive meanings, and has chosen that topic for an extra-credit report for school. I think I teach morals the way you probably do, Del. I spend a lot of time actually doing what is right--modelling moral behavior and talking about morals and ethics, since Briana is not reading about these concepts in a Bible or hearing any sermons. Since atheists and pagans perceive that there is no reward for good behavior except that it is the right thing to do, I stress how bad it would feel inside to cheat or steal, and how Briana would not want to hurt herself in that way, or hurt others by acting badly. Pagans and atheists get a general bad rap as parents, and I think it is unfair. Almost all of us follow the basic teachings of all the great prophets--the Buddha, Christ, Confucius--in the sense of the most loving ways to move through life. Because we cannot frighten our children into submission with fear of the devil, or hell, or lure them into good behavior with the promise of eternal rewards, we must teach them the beauty and rightness of living lightly on the earth, and the joy and love and pleasure inherent in each new day.