am i a bad Catholic if i no longer practice and don’t identify as a Catholic anymore
not looking for any responses just a question for all of us to ponder on
HELLO SUBSCRIBERS if you’ve been tuning in since last week you’d know that I just purchased some new seamless backdrops. Here is one of them in action:
These two have sold their souls to me.
And here’s another in action:
Liam is my cousin and is not allowed to refuse my need to practice photography lighting when he is in town.
Okay, so, not bad! Both of those shoots were done during different times of the day, which definitely changed how my lights were working. I’ve also realized that since the olive green backdrop is darker, it requires more exposure. Just things for all of us to think about collectively as a group.
The other day (yesterday) I was textin with my birthgiver, and she out of nowhere got a little carried away with some JJs (Jesus Jokes™).
Now, for context, I often say “God Bless” to people when I’m saying bye or something good happens, but I say it as a joke. When not actually being religious in conversation, saying “God Bless” is ~classic~ comedy. And obviously, my mother has become inspired by this humorous remark, especially when she’s excited about something — in this case, she is excited about a taco place in Brooklyn that she saw on a Bobby Flay show. It’s a perfect opportunity to throw a bunch of swear words and religious words into a few texts together.
But the reason I bring this up is that it got me thinking about religion. For those who don’t know, I went to Catholic school my entire life, until college. Not only did I go to Catholic schools, but I also went to an all-girls Catholic high school. Now, everyone, calm down. I get it; I’m sick as hell. From grade school — for my non-Chicago students, grade school is Preschool through 8th grade; there is no middle school or junior high or elementary school; just grade school — to high school, I learned about religion and how important it was supposed to be to us in very separate ways. I didn’t realize until high school or even the beginning of college that my grade school was pretty conservative. Our health classes didn’t teach us about anything but our periods. Abstinence is key, and there’s really nothing else to know. Actually, I think we learned about acne, too. Very important to my later years as an Accutane alum. And the term “gay” was something we never truly understood then. Gay was an insult that kids used against each other, and teachers never explained what it meant.
I remember in 7th or 8th grade, we were in a Social Studies class learning about the mythical Greek gods, and some of us were confused about how Zeus was Athena’s father because she broke out of his head. A kid in our class had the courage to ask our teacher if Zeus was able to have Athena because he was gay. Boy, oh boy, did that make this teacher’s head explode (and a new Athena was born!). She was so mad. How DARE you ask a question like that? Never say that AGAIN. Shame on you! How horrible of you to say. Now, at the same time, smartboards were getting super popular in schools. Projectors were getting removed from classrooms, and tiny ones attached to the ceilings were being installed. But this teacher wanted both. She had the smartboard and the projector, and the projector had more cords attached to it than I Am The Walrus by The Beatles. Too niche? Keeping it. Anyway, these cords come into play when the teacher continues to pace whilst she screams at our fellow student. SUDDENLY, the teacher trips on all the cords and face plants. It gets better. She uses the projector to pull herself up and then asks, “Are the electronics okay?” People say war is tough, but not laughing at this situation was definitely tougher. It’s too bad we were learning about Greek gods when we could’ve been learning about karma.
In high school, we took mandatory religion classes on all religions — Catholicism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, etc. They felt it was important that even though they had high hopes we were all Catholics, it was still important to understand it all. And I appreciated that. As someone who doesn’t really know if there is anything out there, I’m thankful that I’m so well informed on so many religions because religion runs this planet. Every country is run by a constitution that refers to some sort of higher being, and there’s no way we’ll ever get anywhere without everybody understanding these things. Also, the blood of Christ is very tasty.
Religion is so weird. The bubbles it puts people in blows my mind. When I went to college, I was so shocked that there were almost no Catholics at my Vermont liberal arts school. I was also shocked that so many of the people I knew in high school were genuinely religious people who thank God for their lives and weren’t just like me — someone who was just put in Catholic schools but didn’t practice outside of them. Everything surprises me all the time. I get surprised by the way customers treat retail employees. I get surprised by the way children learn that things have consequences — for example, a boy ran straight into the Baggu door the other day and thought nothing would happen. The boy was severely and hilariously mistaken. I get surprised by the fact that I always trip and fall on the ground. You’d think I’d learn by now! I get so surprised by the ignorance people have when others disagree with them. But most importantly, I get surprised by the quickly growing fanbase of Taylor Swift. It just never ends and gets bigger and bigger. One day, the only people on this planet will be Taylor Swift fans.
Final thing I will say is that I did a Jennifer Coolidge impression for my dad recently that was honestly fine and not the best but probably had a word or two that really sounded like her and let me just say: my dad is supportive of my passions, but he has never been as supportive as he is about my Jennifer Coolidge impression. I try to send him videos of other people doing it — Chloe Fineman, Benny Drama, etc. — and he continues to say it’s not like my impression. And he’s right. They’re not like mine. They’re better. Dad, I’m kidding I know you support everything I do but it is so funny that you really support this one. Thank you.
movie rec: Lady Bird (2017) — watched it again yesterday … still just as good
book rec: Stay True by Hua Hsu — almost done with it, and it’s one of the best memoirs I’ve ever read
music rec: DONNA SUMMER
photographer rec: me
HAVE A GOOD WEEK DON’T FORGET TO PRAY FOR YOUR SINS AND BY PRAY I MEAN SLAY
Really good job on the Zeus and Athena joke. Really really good job