On All My Motions

This past weekend, Susan and I traveled cross-state to attend a funeral. The deceased was the oldest son of a family I’d known many years ago, before my own family moved to a different state. (The youngest daughter attended my first wedding to Susan; the oldest daughter met with us a couple of years ago when she saw on Facebook that I was in the area, and got in touch via Facebook message.) Because their mother was Catholic, there had been six kids total, three girls and three boys, and now — the youngest son having died some years ago — only one son remains. (And, frankly, he looks like crap.)

There were two things that stood out to me.

First was that, though we’d spent years hanging out and doing things together, I realized that I’d never particularly liked any of the boys. Didn’t have anything specific against them — didn’t dislike them — but there had always been reservations there, something that kept me from regarding them as genuine friends and downgraded them to familiar acquaintances against whom I had no active grudges. (But I got along fine with the three girls, and still do.)

Second was that, while they were raised Catholic, apparently only one of them still is, and there are indications that she might not be especially active … while Susan and I, who were raised to believe that there were explicit reasons that Catholicism was wrong, are now active in that faith and make a point of attending Mass in whatever new town we travel to. And our son is Catholic. And his wife came into the Church before marrying him, and because of him. And our grandchildren are Catholic. And our daughter is married to an Irish Catholic (though we’ve gotten hints he’s not that active himself these days). The Catholic family from my younger days had diminished their membership in the Church, while ours has increased. Not anything I ever would have predicted.

No judgments there, just a recognition of incongruity.

And that’s where I am for now.

( Buffyverse drabble )

This morning, following up on the issue described here, I had eye surgery at the clinic to which the VA had referred me.

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( BtVS/A:tS drabble )

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