Happy TMI Tuesday. You know what to do…
LIFE AND BEING
[Editor’s Note: Jack here. I’m flying solo this week, as Jill is holed up in a love nest of sorts on the opposite side of the country. I couldn’t bring myself to ask her to answer this week’s questions and take her away from her fun. Though, to be fair, the last several weeks when I have sent her the questions she hasn’t given me her answers until Tuesday morning, by which point I usually can’t be bothered. Which explains our absence of late.]
1. Why do you live where you live?
The easy answer is, I was born here. I grew up here. It’s essentially all I’ve ever known. My friends are here. Most of my family as well. And my wife’s family too. Jill isn’t likely to pull up stakes and move far away from her parents and her siblings. However, we’ve discussed doing exactly that; our real estate dollar would go so much farther in almost any other part of the country than it would where we are currently living. For what we are currently paying to live in a small condominium, we could have a castle in another state. However, that would require actually living in another state. I’d love to be able to afford a house with a full basement that I could convert into a home theater complete with attached bar and game room, but if doing so requires me to move to a red state, it’s never going to happen.
2. Do you want to have your sins forgiven?
I don’t really believe in sin. Not in the classic definition as is taught to children on Sunday mornings, anyway. I try to live my life in a way that makes sense to me and I always endeavor to do no harm, but I am not religious at all. With that in mind I find much of what is considered a sin in the eyes of the Catholic church (in which I was raised) completely irrelevant to me as a forty-year-old man. If God exists and is all-powerful, He probably isn’t threatened by someone preferring another deity, taking his name in vain, or the whole “graven images” thing. I understand the gravity of murder, theft, and bearing false witness, so I don’t do those things. But coveting one’s neighbor’s wife, or his house, or his mule? Who gives a shit? How does that piss off the Lord? Why does he care if I want what my neighbor has as long as I don’t kill him to get it? Also, keeping holy the Sabbath? Come on. If I want to wake up at noon on a Sunday and jerk off in bed before waking up and getting plastered, who am I hurting? I take particular exception to the adultery commandment as I happen to enjoy sex that is, per Wikipedia, “objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds”. Anyway, I don’t care if my sins are forgiven by a hypothetical god or God, or by some out-of-touch religious figurehead. I would, however, like it if my transgressions were forgiven by those whom I actually wronged.
3. Do you believe in heaven and hell?
I could make a joke along the lines of “Hell is Trump’s America”, but instead I’ll just say no.
4. After life, where do you think you will end up?
Don’t know, don’t care. An urn on somebody’s mantel? An unmarked grave in a potter’s field? The belly of a hungry lion? Doesn’t matter. If you were expecting me to get more philosophical than that, you’re barking up the wrong blog.
5. If you have children, would they say you are the favorite parent? Why do you think this?
I have one child. I hope she would not say I am the favorite parent, because (a) I’m sure it would hurt Jill’s feelings and because (b) hello, I’m obviously phoning it in.
6. Has anything ever happened to you that was dramatic, personal or spectacular enough to cause you to believe in a God?
The only thing that ever caused me to believe in God, or in a god, was the intense religious indoctrination I experienced as a child. Everyone in my family was Catholic. I attended catechism after school once a week. There was at least one Bible in my house (though as far as I know nobody ever read it) and a crucifix hanging above my bed (ostensibly to ward off vampires). While my parents and I didn’t go to church every week we did go sometimes. My mother was a firm believer in the power of prayer (and I believe still is). My cousins went to Catholic school. While the majority of my day-to-day existence was secular – I consumed entertainment that was generally not religious in nature – I was still Catholic, and kind of believed in the existence of God by default. It seemed ridiculous to me, but I couldn’t imagine the church existed to swindle its congregation by trading promises and lies for tithing. Surely the government would have stepped in were that the case.
Bonus: What is something you consider to be a great personal success? Why was it so significant?
Completing this week’s TMI Tuesday on minimal sleep.
How to play TMI Tuesday: Copy the above TMI Tuesday questions to your webspace (i.e., a blog). Answer the questions there, then leave a comment below, on this blog post, so we’ll all know where to read your responses. Please don’t forget to link to tmituesdayblog from your website!