An Ash Wednesday Synch
Last night I took my 3-year-old son to an Ash Wednesday service--we go to church every year on that day only. On the way, my son was asking me about where we were going.
His first thought was that he wanted to choose the color of the ashes--no gray for him. Then he asked what the ashes meant and I couldn't really remember but I thought maybe it had something to do with the saying "from ashes to ashes, and dust to dust". So I told him that we all die someday and turn into dust. He got a bit upset and said, "but I love myself, I don't want to die". Wow. Then he wanted to know where we go when we die. No simple heaven and hell explanation from me--I told him that it is a mystery. Now here's an unexpected benefit of being involved in religion--it elevates the conversation with your kids a bit. Not that we couldn't have the conversation without religion, but I like that it was so spontaneous. Regardless of the fact that I consider myself a spiritual person, in nearly 4 years I've never really talked with my son about my beliefs and he's never had a chance to see me "practicing" my spirituality in any way. But the anticipation of a single church service sparked an interest in the mystery of life and death in him. Just a thought.
The synch in this story came later. During the mass I was going through the motions a bit--trying to remember all of the responses and everything. The church was packed and my son and I were sharing one chair and no matter which way we moved (forward, backward, side to side) we brushed up against someone else. I thought to myself that I was being a bit of a hypocrite, going through these motions and trying to look like I do them every Sunday. The very moment after I thought it to myself, the gospel reading began and...it was a reading denouncing hypocrites. The reading was the one which says "when you give alms, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing..." etc.
So, perhaps this was a bit of a mind reading synch--perhaps my mind anticipated the reading, picked up on the thoughts of the reader or priest or something, before the reading had begun. Or maybe the church chose that reading because they know a lot of hypocrites come out of the woodwork for that particular service. Or maybe a part of the reading was printed on the missal (that's the little handout with all of the songs and citations from the Bible which will be used for a particular mass) and I glanced it sidelong without realizing I was reading it (I didn't have one in hand, but the people around me were holding theirs. (Of course, I didn't read over it afterwards to see if they printed something about hypocrites). Or maybe they do the same readings every Ash Wednesday and I simply remembered it from last year.
His first thought was that he wanted to choose the color of the ashes--no gray for him. Then he asked what the ashes meant and I couldn't really remember but I thought maybe it had something to do with the saying "from ashes to ashes, and dust to dust". So I told him that we all die someday and turn into dust. He got a bit upset and said, "but I love myself, I don't want to die". Wow. Then he wanted to know where we go when we die. No simple heaven and hell explanation from me--I told him that it is a mystery. Now here's an unexpected benefit of being involved in religion--it elevates the conversation with your kids a bit. Not that we couldn't have the conversation without religion, but I like that it was so spontaneous. Regardless of the fact that I consider myself a spiritual person, in nearly 4 years I've never really talked with my son about my beliefs and he's never had a chance to see me "practicing" my spirituality in any way. But the anticipation of a single church service sparked an interest in the mystery of life and death in him. Just a thought.
The synch in this story came later. During the mass I was going through the motions a bit--trying to remember all of the responses and everything. The church was packed and my son and I were sharing one chair and no matter which way we moved (forward, backward, side to side) we brushed up against someone else. I thought to myself that I was being a bit of a hypocrite, going through these motions and trying to look like I do them every Sunday. The very moment after I thought it to myself, the gospel reading began and...it was a reading denouncing hypocrites. The reading was the one which says "when you give alms, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing..." etc.
So, perhaps this was a bit of a mind reading synch--perhaps my mind anticipated the reading, picked up on the thoughts of the reader or priest or something, before the reading had begun. Or maybe the church chose that reading because they know a lot of hypocrites come out of the woodwork for that particular service. Or maybe a part of the reading was printed on the missal (that's the little handout with all of the songs and citations from the Bible which will be used for a particular mass) and I glanced it sidelong without realizing I was reading it (I didn't have one in hand, but the people around me were holding theirs. (Of course, I didn't read over it afterwards to see if they printed something about hypocrites). Or maybe they do the same readings every Ash Wednesday and I simply remembered it from last year.
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