So, we have a new Pope. Nice of me to be right on top of things.
News Flash: The big yellow one is the SUN.
So, we have a new Pope here in Catholicland and there�s malaise. I mean, how were they going to make everyone happy? So, we get a new guy. He�s old and is, in my opinion, probably a little wacky. But, he �deserves it� and should last only 5 years or so. Then, it�s up to the Church to show if they have any balls or if they�re all in some little boy�s mouth. The next Pope needs to be from Latin America or Africa. They need to let women be priests or let them marry. I know there are a lot of very good men in the priesthood, but you have to be more than a little �off� to want that lifestyle. It�s no wonder they attract their fare share of whack jobs.
So, we don�t go to church anymore. Haven�t really for about 5 years or so.
I have 3 excuses. We�ll call them Lame, Easy and Real.
Let�s go over them.
Lame: I don�t have time and I don�t feel like dragging Shmuppie out to church every weekend. She wouldn�t sit still and we�d be stuck in the crying room with all the other kids. Plus, I like being able to be half in the bag by 5:00 on a Saturday night. I also like having a Sunday morning that evolves. I like to make us all breakfast, read the paper and drink a pot of some overpriced coffee. Waking up, showering, getting everyone dressed and bolting out the door to 10:15 mass doesn�t do it for me. Like I said, lame.
Easy: Easy and Real are related, but there�s an easy component to things. We belong to a small church in the town next door. JewelrySlut�s originally from that town and grew up going to that church. However, it�s changed. A LOT. The old pastor who was there was forced out because he wasn�t playing nice with the Diocese (little did we really know what they had in store). They booted him and brought in a new guy. He brought in another one of his guys. Of the 4 priests we had, 2 were booted from the church for Sex stuff. The new pastor had a thing for teenagers when he was a Naval Chaplain. Another older priest liked married women. The other new priest certainly raised doubts in my mind. Plus, I thought he was an asshole. So, the easy excuse is �Those fuckers stand up there and tell me not to have sex whenever I want AND I�m married, yet they go around banging with impunity. Fuck that, I�m gone.�
Real: Like I said, real and easy are related. Real Excuse started when the old Pastor left. When we got married back in 1996, we lived in another part of the state. Church rules say you are supposed to get married in �your church�. JewelrySlut belonged to a local church. However, we didn�t know anyone there and did not want to get married there. We went to go see Fr. George and told him of our quandary. He set us straight: JewelrySlut, this is and always will be your church. You belong here.� Case closed. We got married by a familiar priest who we all liked. It meant a LOT to my mother-in-law. They loved that church and really belonged there. It was like family. So, fast forward to about 2000 or so. Fr. George gets the boot. He butted heads all the time with the Bishop. He was retired and Fr. MailsItIn joined us. At about this time, the sex scandals started. Our bishop was in the forefront for hiding pedophiles and the like. He hid us a new pastor and one of his cronies. The parish next door had one hidden. The one next to that had another. This son of a bitch hid at least 3 of those monsters up in the hills of NJ where nobody would look. So, we keep going to church. But, I�m getting nothing from it. I�m going through the motions and nearly falling asleep during homilies. One Saturday evening, Fr Righteous (one of the new guys) stood up there and told us that all Non-Catholics were gong to burn in Hell and that everyone who went to Masson Saturday would do the same. I sat there and said �Hello. I�m sitting RIGHT HERE�. So, that cheesed me off. I have a problem with any religion that says �We�re right, you burn�. If God loves everyone, how can that be? (Try that argument on for size with a Baptist or some other lunatic). So, we have Fr Righteous and Pastor MailsItIn. He was totally going through the motions and didn�t seem to care about anything. So, I�m finding myself at odds with church teachings, and have priests who piss me off. I�d been getting at odds with the church since I was a teen. I wasn�t prepared to buy in 100% and that really pissed my parents off. I started feeling that religion was what you make of it, not what someone said you were supposed to make of it. (I happen to think that�s� also a very Catholic thing. We have so many damn restrictions that we�re developing into an a la carte religion). So, fast forward to September of 2001. After the attacks in NYC and DC, I announced that we were gong to church that weekend because I needed a little religion and maybe help developing answers.
**As a side note, I�ll add 2 cents on the September 11 attacks. Don�t think that I�m trying to make this about me. It hit me in an odd way. 1 year earlier, I�d been working downtown and used to get off the PATH at the moment that plane 1 hit. So, there was no chance it could have happened to me, but I felt connected to the area. I �knew� the streets, stores, people and vibe of downtown Manhattan. It hurt to see it gone and I was thankful that I was nowhere near it**
So, we go to mass hoping to find something. We�re not sure what we�re looking for, but maybe we�ll find it. What we got was an abomination. The priest or deacon or whoever it was didn�t even mention anything. The homily was a repetition of the Gospel. There was nothing else. I don�t know if it was that the priest didn�t care or figured that if he avoided the pain that we all felt, it would go away. In fact, putting your head in the sand is a very Catholic thing to do. I left Mass furious. That was it. I was done. Since that day, I think I�ve been to church 5 times. Shmuppie�s baptism, Christmas 2002, my mother-in-law�s Florida Funeral (July 2004), my nephew�s baptism in NC, and my mother-in-law�s memorial up here in NJ (September 2004). That�s it. I have no plans to go back for a while. They�re not giving me anything and I�m not taking anything from it. If I go, I�ll sit there in the pew and be pissed off. Church is not a place to be pissed off. I refuse to go through the motions because someone tells me I�m supposed to. To do so, I believe, would be worse than not going at all. So, that�s the real reason why I don�t go.
One more bit on religion:
Did you see This ? What is it with Catholics and seeing Mary in odd things? Like fences, walls, windows, oil stains, sandwiches� I give up.
So, back to work.
We have a new coffee machine. Can�t you see Them sitting there? �Maybe if we give them a new fangled coffee machine they won�t notice the layoffs and utter lack of direction around here?� It�s got cool little packets that you have to drop into the machine and a cool LCD screen. Woohoo!
So, I meet with RedHeadedSaladTosser yesterday. That went well. She said that she didn�t even realize that she was taking the reigns of the print operation until the meeting where it was announced that she�d be directing. Great. I told her 2 things: Learn how to delegate and stay out of the print operation. �I won�t hide anything from you but you�ll only hear of things if you need to. Otherwise, it�s our show to run. Stay out.� So, now I have my 4th boss in a month. I give up. I�m playing phone tag with some guy from another company and I �think I�ll go out to the car now to see if I can reach him. This is not gong to work. I have ZERO respect for this woman and will never be able to work for her and have it not show. This place is so disorganized. There�s no direction and nobody can tell you what�s happening from one day to the next. And they expect me to just trust them? (Well, I was dumb enough to do so 2 weeks ago. Fool me once�) I just want to get out of here. I don�t have to tell my next job that I may be moving in 6 months. It�s none of their business anyway. God I hope I can find another job soon. This is going to be ugly.
Later.