July 18, 2011
I'm in a bad place today - thinking the world is a bad place today. I can't turn on the radio or television or leave the newspaper lying around with my children nearby. Is that because we have too much information today? Or is it because the world is truly worse today?
The Sunday paper had an entire page devoted to the impact of legal gay marriage in New York on adoptions and other family matters. The radio and TV are inundated with sex. Maybe it is the information age that makes life so much harder for parents. How can children grow up spiritually safe in such a world? Is there any way to protect them from the culture? How to create a better culture?
My kids go to Catholic school, but not all parents there share my values - certainly. And they hear things that shock them and shock me. And I'm not sure I respond to it approprirately. I see them pick up vulgar habits, and I remind them of the farmer who sowed good seed and watched the weeds grew up. I remind them that they are good seed and they mustn't be influenced by the weeds. And then I wonder if I'm too serious. And I wonder how to raise children who love and know God.
We went to feed the homeless yesterday with a group connected to my old homeschool group. Not sure what the kids got out of it, but I know it was a good thing to do. I was grateful for the opportunity to serve. And I counted my blessings, which include a home, family, plenty of food, and a job. I still feel I'm just muddling through. Does anyone else feel that way?
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Monday, July 18, 2011
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Appalachian Catholic
April 24, 2010
I have been thinking lately about my two identities: the one into which I was born, and the one I chose as an adult. My first identity is Appalachian. Born in West Virginia to parents from Kentucky and West Virginia, I grew up in Eastern Kentucky and never heard the word Appalachian. But you don't have to hear it to be it. All I can say is that if you have performed with your clogging group at the opening of a second-hand car dealership ..... you might be Appalachian. And I've done that.
As an adult, I learned how different my upbringing was from that of other college and workplace friends. I'm an Appalachian who went "out" and stayed there. That is not very common. I lost my accent. I married into a Spanish family. I'm not ashamed of my heritage at all, but it's not exactly a joyful heritage. And, as I was growing up I found my reading interests centered around Jewish authors -- Bernard Malamud, Chaim Potok, Leon Uris, Herman Wouk, Isaac Bashevis Singer.... The list goes on and on. I was fascinated with these writers because their work depicted an actual "way of life." Despite all of the problems and dramas in their books, there was a shape and structure to their lives -- an orientation toward something outside their own world. And that something was God. Because of that, their "way of life" actually worked, unlike my way of life.
I didn't become Jewish. I became an agnostic in college, a rather boring, much-to-be-expected decision by a young adult away from home for the first time. But years later, living in a big city in the Deep South, I met Catholics. Again, they weren't perfect. Their lives held problems and sometimes dramas, but they had a "way of life." And it worked. There it was again. An orientation to something outside themselves that their religion helped them to incorporate into their lives in a way that my religion never had. And they were Roman Catholic. After two years of reading and thinking, I became a Roman Catholic, too. I never regretted it and I don't plan to ever stop being Catholic.
But trying to be Catholic and Appalachian at the same time is just weird. Appalachian culture is not Catholic; it is very, very Protestant. Appalachians are attuned to the beauty of the natural world around them, but their churches are usually as plain as potatoes. Intellectualism is not regarded highly, in my experience. Fighting and independence run through Appalachian culture like bright ribbons. But in the Catholic world, obedience and community are emphasized.
This culture clash wasn't much of a problem for me when we lived in Memphis, but now that we live in SW Virginia, I find that I often just don't "get" the culture here. Perhaps I have simply been converted. For example, I'm much more concerned about life issues (re: the abortion debate) than I am about mountain-top removal mining. I believe such mining should be stopped and that all mining should be regulated to be safer, but the question of whether a human has a right to life somehow seems to me to be a more basic and pressing issue.
One of the things I have always loved about being Catholic is that it is truly universal. The readings are the same every day everywhere in the world. So I can continue being Catholic right here in Appalachia, awkward as it sometimes feels. If anyone else out there has experienced a similar culture clash. Please post a comment.
I have been thinking lately about my two identities: the one into which I was born, and the one I chose as an adult. My first identity is Appalachian. Born in West Virginia to parents from Kentucky and West Virginia, I grew up in Eastern Kentucky and never heard the word Appalachian. But you don't have to hear it to be it. All I can say is that if you have performed with your clogging group at the opening of a second-hand car dealership ..... you might be Appalachian. And I've done that.
As an adult, I learned how different my upbringing was from that of other college and workplace friends. I'm an Appalachian who went "out" and stayed there. That is not very common. I lost my accent. I married into a Spanish family. I'm not ashamed of my heritage at all, but it's not exactly a joyful heritage. And, as I was growing up I found my reading interests centered around Jewish authors -- Bernard Malamud, Chaim Potok, Leon Uris, Herman Wouk, Isaac Bashevis Singer.... The list goes on and on. I was fascinated with these writers because their work depicted an actual "way of life." Despite all of the problems and dramas in their books, there was a shape and structure to their lives -- an orientation toward something outside their own world. And that something was God. Because of that, their "way of life" actually worked, unlike my way of life.
I didn't become Jewish. I became an agnostic in college, a rather boring, much-to-be-expected decision by a young adult away from home for the first time. But years later, living in a big city in the Deep South, I met Catholics. Again, they weren't perfect. Their lives held problems and sometimes dramas, but they had a "way of life." And it worked. There it was again. An orientation to something outside themselves that their religion helped them to incorporate into their lives in a way that my religion never had. And they were Roman Catholic. After two years of reading and thinking, I became a Roman Catholic, too. I never regretted it and I don't plan to ever stop being Catholic.
But trying to be Catholic and Appalachian at the same time is just weird. Appalachian culture is not Catholic; it is very, very Protestant. Appalachians are attuned to the beauty of the natural world around them, but their churches are usually as plain as potatoes. Intellectualism is not regarded highly, in my experience. Fighting and independence run through Appalachian culture like bright ribbons. But in the Catholic world, obedience and community are emphasized.
This culture clash wasn't much of a problem for me when we lived in Memphis, but now that we live in SW Virginia, I find that I often just don't "get" the culture here. Perhaps I have simply been converted. For example, I'm much more concerned about life issues (re: the abortion debate) than I am about mountain-top removal mining. I believe such mining should be stopped and that all mining should be regulated to be safer, but the question of whether a human has a right to life somehow seems to me to be a more basic and pressing issue.
One of the things I have always loved about being Catholic is that it is truly universal. The readings are the same every day everywhere in the world. So I can continue being Catholic right here in Appalachia, awkward as it sometimes feels. If anyone else out there has experienced a similar culture clash. Please post a comment.
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