Conversation with Dad
My dear New York siblings, congratulations, it's about fucking time.
My own misgivings about using marriage as a strategy, we shouldn't be treated as second class citizens, the ability to marry is one way to assert humanity on paper.
Big hugs!
Tangential to this, I was driving with my father this afternoon. He's buying a laptop for himself and he took me along as the most tech-savvy person living at home at the moment.
Which is saying something. But hey, I can read commercial laptop specs and make sure no one's pulling the wool over the eyes of an older man who's command of Hebrew frustrates him.
On the way, we started talking about Amy Winehouse and he mentioned that she was Jewish, I said "yep, I know."
And he said, "Not that it's in any way relevant."
I replied saying that I think it is important to have that sort of thing known, because Judaism is more than just a religion and he asked if I'd want to have "Jewish" mentioned as part of my biography.
I said that it should be mentioned somewhere, but not like "Melody [Pond], Jewish". I'd much rather have "Feminist" or "Queer".
I asked him, "Isn't being Jewish important to you? You immigrated here because of that."
To which he grimaced and said: "I hate what the religious have done to this country, it makes me resent the religion."
It made me think, that I must have really freaked my parents out when I was going through my exploration of Neopaganism, which came and went quite a bit for the better part of a decade, but which was laid to rest at some point a couple of years ago, and during my emotional break down after the Second Lebanon War, during which I thought I should get closer to... well... something, G-d seemed like a good choice.
I replied to him, regarding his resentment, that being Jewish is more than religion, it's a history and a sense of connection and the whole spiel.
Regardless, he said unfortunately religion was the reason Israel existed, which I refuted in a way he found both amusing and horrifying, most likely. But that's what happens when Godwin is invoked.
He said religion was one of the biggest disaster to ever happen to humanity.
And I said, "At least I come by my atheism honestly."
And he asked, out of nowhere, "And your heterosexuality?"
I gave him a side-eye, "I come by my non-heterosexuality honestly, too,"
To which he laughed and said I should start dating again, because he wants me to be happy and that he and my Mom reacted badly to my relationship at the time (no shit, Sherlock).
It was gratifying to hear him say, though the timing was slightly bizarre.
Then again, the car is the time to have a heart to heart. No one can escape.
How was your Sunday?!
My own misgivings about using marriage as a strategy, we shouldn't be treated as second class citizens, the ability to marry is one way to assert humanity on paper.
Big hugs!
Tangential to this, I was driving with my father this afternoon. He's buying a laptop for himself and he took me along as the most tech-savvy person living at home at the moment.
Which is saying something. But hey, I can read commercial laptop specs and make sure no one's pulling the wool over the eyes of an older man who's command of Hebrew frustrates him.
On the way, we started talking about Amy Winehouse and he mentioned that she was Jewish, I said "yep, I know."
And he said, "Not that it's in any way relevant."
I replied saying that I think it is important to have that sort of thing known, because Judaism is more than just a religion and he asked if I'd want to have "Jewish" mentioned as part of my biography.
I said that it should be mentioned somewhere, but not like "Melody [Pond], Jewish". I'd much rather have "Feminist" or "Queer".
I asked him, "Isn't being Jewish important to you? You immigrated here because of that."
To which he grimaced and said: "I hate what the religious have done to this country, it makes me resent the religion."
It made me think, that I must have really freaked my parents out when I was going through my exploration of Neopaganism, which came and went quite a bit for the better part of a decade, but which was laid to rest at some point a couple of years ago, and during my emotional break down after the Second Lebanon War, during which I thought I should get closer to... well... something, G-d seemed like a good choice.
I replied to him, regarding his resentment, that being Jewish is more than religion, it's a history and a sense of connection and the whole spiel.
Regardless, he said unfortunately religion was the reason Israel existed, which I refuted in a way he found both amusing and horrifying, most likely. But that's what happens when Godwin is invoked.
He said religion was one of the biggest disaster to ever happen to humanity.
And I said, "At least I come by my atheism honestly."
And he asked, out of nowhere, "And your heterosexuality?"
I gave him a side-eye, "I come by my non-heterosexuality honestly, too,"
To which he laughed and said I should start dating again, because he wants me to be happy and that he and my Mom reacted badly to my relationship at the time (no shit, Sherlock).
It was gratifying to hear him say, though the timing was slightly bizarre.
Then again, the car is the time to have a heart to heart. No one can escape.
How was your Sunday?!
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