When I asked my dad to just give me a little rundown/summary on what his most memorable experiences were growing up Catholic, he said that "my parents both very involved with the church so that had major influence. We attended mass every Sunday and followed traditions around the major holidays: Christmas & Easter. My dad was the choir director and the boys (your uncles) sang in the choir."
He also added that "the other parishoners (everyone else who belonged to our church) became our community - see them every week - lots of shared experiences with things like Confirmation etc." When I asked him about the values associated with growing up Catholic, he added that "There was lots of care and empathy towards others - consideration. Thinking about how things are for someone other than yourself. Takes some practice but we learned by example from our parents" I asked him about his view of Jewish values in comparison to his values learned through Christianity and he said, "I enjoy the opportunity to experience both - being Jewish much more cultural to me and lots of important traditions. BarMitzvhah is one of my favorites. Totally agree with "rights of passage" this is one of the most important and you can definitely see it manifested". |
He then started to ramble about his upbringing, and I wasn't even asking him questions "We moved to Vermont when I was 12 - pretty impactful on religion because we left the community behind in VA and had to start over in Vermont. It wasn't the same and my parents didn't connect as well and as a result we also were less engaged"
When I asked my dad what he got out of religion, he said that he retained a "sense of community I would try to do the right things: Treat your neighbor like you'd want to be treated, Don't lie, Don't cheat, Don't steal, Don't kill anyone." A little blunt, but he meant what he said. He of course moved on to talking about the Santa program, which is covered under some other pages, "I started the Santa program when I was 26 before I was married or had kids. Always loved Xmas. More the magic of it than the "birth of Jesus" part. It definitely stemmed from my own experiences learned from my parents giving around that time. I am now 27 years into it and it's still one of the best days of the year for me. Love the idea of helping make the kids and their parents and teachers feel special and cared for." That was about the end of the interview, I thanked him for taking his time to talk about everything and I actually learned a lot of interesting things about him. |