There’s a good chance I could get into some kind of weird trouble for writing this post but life here on The Planet Ann Arbor today was almost as exciting as watching paint dry so I’m looking to mix it up a bit.

The last time I arrived on Fin Family Moominbeach, I was greeted with, “have you seen that big cross in the woods down there?” I had no idea about any “cross” in the woods. Why did anyone need a cross? We have all kinds of icons around the beach. The Back Light. The Amethyst Rock. The Big Rock in the Bay Just Before Cedar Point. The elusive Cylinder (dun dun dun). A little chill went up my spine and my heart tried to jump up to my throat but I forced it back down.

Honestly, can anybody tell me what the heck this kind of thing could be about? I think I have blahgged before that while I respect other people’s religious beliefs*, I am not particularly religious myself. Part of that is probably due to receiving some of Grandroobly’s DNA. And then there were the sweet, well-meaning Sunday School ladies (hey, my parents tried!) who dismissed my questions about how one measly loaf of bread could feed multitudes of people with, “it was a miracle!” When you are a kid who thinks about atoms and universes and calculus before you can articulate the words, you need a better answer than that. That’s not to mention the old biddie** who once tried to get me and my brother (I was five and he was two) to stop rough-housing in the church kitchen while The Commander was making coffee for the coffee hour after the service by telling us that Jesus was gonna get us if we didn’t watch out. Those weren’t her exact words but I got her drift. But Jesus was dead, right? Or not? And whether he was or wasn’t, how the heck could he be watching every single badly behaved kid on earth? We shouldn’t have been rough-housing but this stuff about Jesus just didn’t wash.

Anyway, as you can see, my religious training is lacking. This cross bugs the heck out of me. Why is it there? Is it supposed to protect someone? Who is it supposed to protect? From what? Are there *really* werewolves and vampires in the woods? What’s with the nails? Are they planning to crucify someone? If so, who? Probably me, since I had to do a small bit of trespassing to get that picture. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Y’all know the drill. So what’s up with the cross? Maybe I’ll go join the werewolves and the vampires.

*In the case that religion is used as an excuse to kill or hurt anyone or anything, I get off the train.

**I’m finding out in my old age that I’m not the only person who didn’t like that [long dead] woman. 😉

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 18th, 2007 at 5:56 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.