Knowing Owen, he'll start polling his classmates and compiling the data.

I love this.

I definitely remember figuring out that everyone and everything dies at about that age; it was a sudden awful revelation that hit me like a freight train one night when I was five, getting ready for bed, and it terrified me so badly I went tearing into my brothers' room, where my mom was diapering and PJ'ing them, and wailed, "Mommy, I'm going to die!" like she could fix it somehow. She said that yes, I would someday, but not for a very long time and I didn't need to worry about it for a while yet.

It completely threw me for a loop to find out that some people didn't believe in God at all, but I was only seven or eight, so I guess I'm still marginally ahead of some of the people Trudy went to college with.

And I worry that I'm not teaching Matilda enough about God, that for her S/He's categorized with fairies and superheroes and Santa Claus: all benevolent magic (er, no, I'm not yet reading her any old Celtic tales about the Fair Folk, so she also has no idea yet how deeply weird fairies are), and all equally real even though she hasn't yet personally encountered any of them.

And, of course, I've got my own issues with my church and I don't know myself where I'll be a year or so from now, so it's hard to invest myself in investing her in all the rituals, I'm so constantly in a rage at the people currently running the show.

And I worry that I'm not teaching Matilda enough about God, that for her S/He's categorized with fairies and superheroes and Santa Claus:

On a lighter note, my neighbor growing up was trying to get his son to believe in Santa, but he refused after hearing "a right jolly old elf," because elves aren't real!

Elves, fairies, unicorns: all real. And yesterday when we were out walking through the neighborhood I pointed out an especially gussied-up multi-pastel Victorian as "colored like an Easter egg," and Matilda said, "It's the Easter Bunny's house. Yeah. He lives there."

I myself personally believe in the Boneless Chicken Ranch, where ripe chickens drop naturally from the trees when they're ready to be eaten.

best not let mac meet Matilda. He feels compelled to tell all children that I do not believe in Santa et al.

Cash, have you looked at either of the Parenting Beyond Belief books? I haven't read them myself, but I've heard good things.

(The one point where I find myself violently disagreeing with him is that he takes his kids to as many different churches as possible so they can get exposed to different religious ideas. Which is fine if you're an atheist with a Christian background, but not really helpful to anyone trying to raise a family of secular Jews.)

I wish there were a congregation of the Society for Humanistic Judaism closer to me - the NYC chapter meets in various synagogues and UU churches in Manhattan and all the services would get us home LONG past D's bedtime. And like everything else in NYC, membership is hella expensive.

best not let mac meet Matilda. He feels compelled to tell all children that I do not believe in Santa et al.

Meh. I kinda don't even want to do believing in Santa at all--the road to disbelief was kind of traumatic for me, and I think it was for Emmett as well. I'd be perfectly happy to transition over the next year or so from "Real guy with a magic key [since we have no chimney]" to "Was a real guy, was a saint, did lots of good things for as many people as he could, and now we remember his goodness by telling these stories about him."

Timelies all!

Going to a concert tonight.

A history of Old Spice commercials. [link]