Good visit

Well, it took everyone some time to acclimate to being together, but the walls finally came down a bit yesterday as we all gathered at the Mills home up in Coarsegold for dinner. It was nice to laugh and kick back and just ... put our differences on the back burner for awhile.

I still feel a bit ideologically alienated at times. For instance Mike started discussing jehova's witnesses with Dad, expressing his frustration at how off-the-wall and seemingly arbitrary their beliefs are, particularly since they use the same bible as the evangelical christian canon (unlike mormonism). It was hard for me to listen to this and withhold my opinion since, in my view, evangelical christianity is just as selective, arbitrary, and "off-the-wall" in its usage of that text, which itself has been selectively pruned, reinterpreted, and falsely translated over the centuries.

It felt a bit like listening to a discussion about how many angels can dance on on the head of a pin when the listener doesn't believe in angels to begin with. You just get this futile desire to wake people up but you know you'll just end up offending them and reinforcing walls in the process.

But I try not to let that affect my respect for most of the individuals involved.

That and a good dose of humor helped to ease the tension as well ^_^

It was interesting to finally get some details on what Matt does out there in the Iraqi desert, something he wasn't too forthcoming about until I started prying during the ride back to Fresno. It certainly doesn't sound like a fun job, and I'm sure he's relishing his time off.

I (and several other members of the family) hope he'll take advantage of his GI Bill when he returns. It's frustrating to hear Mom push him toward vocational occupations or suggest that he go straight to the police academy. She seems stuck on the idea of avoiding school at all costs, which continues to baffle me.

Part of me wonders if this is rooted in a fear of exposure to new ideas. She still harbors a perception that university professors are responsible for my own atheism, so she may be trying protect Matt from the prodigality-inducing dangers of academia in that sense. But it feels fundamentally disrespectful, and I do wish she'd stop trying to limit the scope his life. That's not what parents are supposed to do.

In all, it was a good visit, if only because I got to share some laughs with my brother, goof off, talk about his job a bit, and just have some time together. I just wish some of this could be experienced without all the baggage that my parents bring, but that'll change once Matt becomes a civilian again and leads his own life.