I used to see religion as a warm, safe place. It was somewhere that created a routine, a social network, and a place of belonging. Oh, and we were right. About everything. And that’s a great feeling, being right. Never having to doubt. Knowing my neighbor was wrong, but I was right. It was strange how every other religion was Oh So Wrong. So clear how they hurt other people. So obvious that the adherents were worshiping themselves, rather than a god. And then I..changed. They’d say that I fell away. The people in the pews. Because I was no longer convinced that I was better than others. That I could be cruel, selfish, vain, and legalistic, and it was okay if I sat in a pew on Sunday. In fact, I could doubt and wonder and process as much as I needed, if I kept mindlessly repeating the same tropes as everyone in the pew. Recite the same Bible verses. Sit in the same seat. Drink the same bad coffee. Go to the same Bible studies. Rinse and repeat. That was faith. That was al
April 12th, 2021. That was the day England's shops and outdoor dining opened up. The day that I could once again take my child to swim lessons. The day we could once again stay somewhere overnight - not a hotel or someone's house, but anywhere self-catering. Confusing, American readers? Welcome to my life. People like to tell me they can tell this has been hard on me as if this is radically new information and they're providing deep insight into my life. Truthfully, a Euro-style lockdown is hard on any healthy person. The struggle to survive a brutal lockdown is more indicative of a person living a full life than anything else. Sprinkle that with negative commentary from US dwellers who think a lockdown is an optional event, and it makes for a nearly unbearable, dark winter. But we survived. All of us. Infection numbers are down, down, down. Vaccination numbers are up, up, up, and the adults in our household are the unusual fully vaccinated non-medical worker thir