church and parental issues

[edenfalling]

I got up early in case I wanted to go to church, but whole Easter Sunday thing is kind of putting me off. Yeah, most UU congregations don't do much by way of specifically Christian celebration, but there's going to be a Child Naming and Parent Dedication ceremony... and those irritate the hell out of me for some reason.

So I'm up for no reason. Bah.

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Today I am setting out -- in writing and nice organized lists -- my plans for the coming year or two. Then I get to email all this to my parents. Joy. Excruciating joy.

They'll be understanding and supportive of my decisions, of course, which is -- in a bizarre way -- almost worse than being disapproving and angry. Because I have nobody to worry about and nothing to fear but myself. And I can't find any righteous anger to drive me, which is a shame. I work well with imminent deadline pressure or righteous anger (the first is much easier to come by; my righteous anger has a nasty tendency to derail into corrosive anger), but otherwise I have motivation issues.

Comments

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Well... about the baby namings -- I was raised Catholic and hated the cookie-cutter approach to baptizing babies (not to mention I don't believe in infant baptism!!). When we adopted our daughter in 1996, I was thrilled to be able to hold a very special dedication service for her when she was 3 months old -- even her dad (who is militantly unchurched) attended.

As for your parents -- they sound like typical supportive UU parents, meaning they won't come at you with fire and brimstone, will they?? No, of course not. So like the good UU-raised person that you are, you have to develop your own internal motivation. Hey, I'm a lot older than you (possibly older than your parents) and it's still an issue for me. I do like deadlines, though; I love the sound they make when they woosh by... :D

[edenfalling]

I think what bugs me is that the Child Dedications I've sat through have been fairly cookie-cutter in their own way, though with tiny personalized touches. It seems to me that there ought to be either a bigger deal made, or the whole thing should be far more private.

Of course, I myself was baptized, though non-denominationally; based on my memory of my sister's baptism it was mostly just a bit of water and a "This child is So-and-so," with only my parents and grandmother present, as we did it for my grandmother's sake. So maybe I'm unconsciously programmed to dislike non-baptismal namings. ;-)