azurelunatic | Shower Meme Interviews, Continuing: Religion

tiel asked:

You seem to have grown up in a rather non-traditional household, having been raised in a very rural area, always surrounded (as far as I know) by your current traditions, rather then coming into magic later in life. How do you think you benefited from the experience, and do you think that there is anything significant that you missed out on?: Good one there.

My area is actually far less rural than you might think from my stories about it. I grew up with chickens and geese and ducks and rather a lack of indoor plumbing; my sister's friend just a short walk away had TV and two bathrooms with a patio and indoor garage.

My parents, who evidently could agree that an over-religious childhood was not something they wanted to inflict upon us, didn't. My father was raised Quaker; my mother was raised some other form of Protestant. We occasionally went to First Day meetings at Hidden Hill, but not often.

My father believed in celebrating the natural order of things, and also believed that especially as we lived in Alaska, celebrating the phases of the sun was highly important. We held parties on the Solstices (FatherSir organized one very memorable bash at UAF one summer), and made note of the equinoxes.

My sister and I were never given an organized frame for spirituality, and had to hack out one ourselves. We had very little problem with this. She and I have different ideas about how to go about things now, as is the case with many sisters.

I don't think that we missed out on much. We certainly missed out on a lot of the anguished soul-searching that people who have grown up with an organized religion, and break with that religion, have. When I was old enough, I got curious about the religious options available to me, and instigated a search. (My friend Savil noticed, and gave me some elementary books on magic.)

If anything, my father's influence discouraged me from getting into magic as soon as I might have. He dismissed all aphysical phenomena, or phenomena not directly linked with clearly investigatable cause and effect, as superstition, nonsense, and coincidence. One of my favorite stories about him vs. magic involves him, a voodoo doll, and the Boys' Vice-Principal's broken ankle. Nope. No magic involved there!

One distinct advantage that Narcissa and I did have was the regular celebration of holidays not in the Christian book. Santa Lucia day? Sure.

That's me. Narcissa was standing by with a bucket of water and a far-too-gleeful expression, lest my hair catch fire. We celebrated Chinese New Year, and other random holidays belonging to my father's friends. Christmas was rarely, if ever, at our house; it still doesn't feel like "my" holiday.

I think my parents did all right for me with religion, though.

Thanks. =)

Welcome. :)

Everyone I've asked for shower meme questions knows me really well.
This will lead to alot of answers that tell about me in terms of in-jokes and already understood ideas.

I was wondering if, knowing not much about me, you could throw together a few basic questions... I think it'll give a much different (and therefore interesting) point of view.

Much apprecaited. Thanks.

1. Everybody should already know who Samwise Gamgee is. Why did you choose that name for yourself?

2. I notice that you are not 100% straightedge sober. What's the attraction of this?

3. How did you wind up starting martial arts?

4. What is your favorite thing about anime?

5. What is your favorite programming language/OS/other computer geek thing and why?

Shower Meme Interviews, Continuing: Religion

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