tales of an ordinary girl

I almost titled this post "I went to South Carolina and I all I got was a lousy red neck", but that's another story.

So if you read my Aliens, Mummies, and The Visit post I promised an update on my visit to my parents. Did I come out as a raging atheist to my family? Well... no. But let's look at it a little closer.

The night before I left my sister called to talk to me about the visit. She's the only one in my family that knew I was coming. I wanted to surprise my mom on Mother's Day and the only way to keep a secret is not to tell the men in my family.

We were talking about my mom and her cat, Sissy, who died recently. In fact talking to my mom after Sissy died is why I decided to surprise her initially. I wasn't able to be there to console her, but I thought a visit might cheer her up a little bit even if it was a few weeks later.

Then my sister said, "I just told her that April needed a pet so she took Sissy." April was my sister's daughter who died nine years ago at the age of 14. It's a very difficult thing for us all to deal with still. And I thought, "Oh, shit." I was planning to come out to my sister first. But how do I tell her I don't believe in a god or heaven when she's counting on heaven to see her daughter again. So I scrapped that idea before I even started on the trip.

So I quickly re-examined my strategy. Well, I have two brothers. My oldest brother would probably be the best. He can't keep anything to himself and it'd almost be like he was breaking the news instead of me. Besides, my other brother's wife has recently been diagnosed with liver cancer, after surviving just about every other type of cancer. I'm not sure how he feels about religion, but I don't want to rock what could be a fragile boat.

So that was the plan anyway.

I spent Saturday afternoon with encephalophone, who kindly called me an intellectual. It was flattering even if it's not true. I do like to write about a lot of things here, but I don't consider myself very knowledgeable. But if an old friend can think I'm smart then I must be doing something right.

Then I drove up to my sister's house where I planned to stay for a couple of days. We spent time chatting over dinner and went shopping for a few things before heading home and settling in for the night. I slept well.

The next morning my mom called and I thought it would be fun to call her while she was on the phone with my sister. She had no idea that I was sitting in the next room. I was pretty sure she would be surprised.

When we arrived we parked around to the side so they couldn't see us. My sister entered first and told my parents she brought the surprise she had promised them and then I came into the room. Both of my parents cried. My mom told me she almost wished she'd said she wanted me there when she talked to me on the phone, but she didn't want me to feel guilty about not being there. She just kept saying that she was so happy her whole family was together for one day.

My brothers came and their families and I got to surprise them as well. And the rest of the day was a normal family gathering spent catching up on what everyone was doing.

The rest of the trip was uneventful except for three things.

1. I didn't see my older brother again to tell him candidly about my atheism. He's supposed to visit in August though with my parents and his son.

2. Several conversations I had with my parents where I played the part of "skeptic".

At one point my mom pointed to the natural disasters and wars taking place in the world as signs of the end times. I told her that's what they said in the 40's with World War II. Seriously, the end times has been predicted again and again and it has never happened.

At breakfast one morning I was talking about oil prices with my mom and she said they needed to use the resources in Alaska or increase fuel standards. I said it would make much more sense if we worked on developing a solution to use something other than gasoline for transportation, since oil would inevitably run out someday. She said that she thought the end times would come before oil reserves ran out. I argued with her saying that that's why we're in the predicament we're in today. Years ago we could have worked harder on a solution, but no one thought we'd reach the predicament we're in today. That sort of short-sited view of the world really pisses me off. "I believe the Lord is coming and if not, screw the next generation." I was happy to stand my ground on that argument at least.

My dad asked me what I thought of chelation. I was glad that I'd read some posts at The Rogues Gallery about it because I was able to tell him what it was and why I didn't think it would work for him. My dad has high blood pressure after a heart bypass a few years ago suffered a cluster or strokes. Not only would chelation be dangerous for him, but I am convinced that it would do nothing to help him feel better. The fact that some company is marketing pills that "mimic" chelation pisses me off. My dad doesn't have $100 a month to spend on them, regardless of how he hopes they'll work. I did feel a little guilty though for trying to destroy his hope, but goddamn it, I don't want my parents to be cheated!

The last conversation with my dad was about cursing in movies and violence in video games. He said he couldn't stand cursing in movies. I said I never really noticed it. He also thought that violent video games led to violent crimes, which has never been proven. I argued that children could act out from their imagination, whether or not they played video games or watched violent movies. While it's true I probably wouldn't let my kids see violence at a young age, it isn't because I think it'd turn them into homicidal maniacs. Most people can tell the difference between imagination and reality. Those that can't, we usually diagnose as having mental problems and will not need video games to make them do things we consider abnormal.

3. A visit to Heritage USA, which will be featured in a future post.

So yeah, I didn't come out, but I was able to disagree with my parents which is a huge step, coming from a very authoritarian background (sometimes I feel like a teenager around my parents.. like I can't have my own opinion as an adult) and there's still hope for the future. Yeah, it's still a cop out, but I'm making progress. I'm happier with the person I am while there. I'm an atheist, just without explicitly stating it.