Apologies; I can't seem to find the right heading for this post in english... What I mean is "extreme opposites", or "complete contrasts" on an essential scale. But the terms are just SO not catchy. Maybe the word I'm looking for is 'extremities', but that just reminds me of orthopaedics... I can blame my father for that. ;)
At any rate, bringing these two topics up in the same post are a sort of map of the continuum of my mind at the moment (and, to be more honest, are also the two things completely distracting me from writing my Thesis article on corporate ergonomics evaluation methods...)
Anyhop. Extremity no. 1:
I wrestle frequently with fitting my Catholic upbringing and faith into my maximally secular Swedish existence. To give you an idea of how that can feel - a sociology researcher recently did her thesis on religious identity in secular society, by interviewing young Swedish catholics. The title of the thesis was: "They are two worlds that just don't fit together." (a quote from one of the interviewees). That should give you the gist of things.
My position is that I'm on the inside looking out, i.e. I'm practising my faith regularly and sincerely but with the constant nagging awareness that everyone here from my closest friends to my furthest acquaintances (save maybe 2%) grew up without a religious 'identity', so I've got few people around who can relate to this, and few people who will let pass with no judgment the fact that I do go to church.
This means living by two rule books, and always choosing between them whenever there's a conflict. It gets tricky sometimes, but I'd rather discuss it openly with people than get the 'oh-everyone-hush--she's-religious'- reaction (which is horribly ostracizing). In other words, I've grown up thinking (about my family), WE go to church. Other people generally don't.
I browsed though Nico's friends' blogs and found a postcard from someone on the outside looking in, who started by thinking as a kid that everyone went to church:
http://mytedium.blogspot.com/2007/11/my-weekly-god-inoculation.html
I'm glad I found it. It's something I can relate to from the other side of the stained glass, even if I haven't lost my faith. (I just think it's a living thing with a mind all its own.)
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Extremity no. 2:
I don't know if my affinity with songs involving Meat Loaf are a testament to a rotten strain in my musical maturity, but hell-I-don't-care. I am seriously in love with this song (which to top it all is at duet with Cher!).
Meat Loaf feat. Cher - Dead Ringer for Love
Pardon the lousy sound, the lousy 80's scenography, dramaturgy and whatnot, but this SONG! Aargh! I wanna sing like that! I surrender!! :D
Anyone who finds this on Singstar: I'm on!!
19/12/2007
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Feel free to leave a comment just about anywhere. Carry on.
Heh, I'm glad you found Evan's post, he rarely uses his blog so it's good that someone read it and linked in (perhaps it'll encourage him to write more?).
ReplyDeleteI myself am in a weird agnostic predicament, having studied world religions and philosophies while having the background of a Catholic... and being a generally empathetic person, this gives the impression that in the issue of faith, I'm kind of noncommittal. But in reality what I'm thinking is, "Yeah. That argument works." But that's my response to a lot of religious outlooks. So I really just don't know what to think.
Interesting to hear about the religious weather patterns in Sweden... obviously it wasn't a country founded on a religious basis, so I wonder how many churches there are per city?