Jingle bells

So my parents have been enjoying their stay with us, I think. It has been twelve years since we have had them here this time of year, and I have quite enjoyed being able to spend this time with them. Since they go south in October, it is normally many months before I can see them again. But seeing them at Christmastime is a special treat. And it is a thing that my youngest daughter has never known - she was only a month old the last time we were all together this time of year. Yesterday, my Dad took pictures of my daughter riding a horse at the stable. She is still in lessons, and won't take her helmet off until she gets home. :-)

We drank wine and ate roast beef at my brother's place on Tuesday, and we got into a profound meaning of life discussion. My brother lamented the fact that every year at Christmas, when we were young, we got five dollars from my grandmother.... but we spent it, and now it is gone. My mother noted how little she could afford to part with five dollars per grandchild. I said that I noticed the absence of the five dollars every year. I mentioned how my grandmother used to send me wallets, lots of wallets, and as my wallets kept falling apart, I'd replace them with a new one she sent me. I mentioned how I have kept one in check... so that I always have an extra wallet from my grandmother around. It helps me feel like she is still in my life, still a part of Christmas.

My father is writing another book. We discussed that, and it sounds interesting - a fictional narrative examining life, what it means, why we're in it. We're all over the map on that question in my family, going from the practitioner of a specific creedal system (me) to skeptical agnosticism, and apparently, all our views make their way into the story - I'm assuming in a Platonic dialogue kind of way.

I'm not sure how well my family knows my views and beliefs on faith and religion. They all know I have it, but I'm not sure if they realize how... intricate and complex a web of insights, fears, hopes, beliefs, and skepticisms my spirituality is. Of course, the same holds true in reverse. We've had quasi-religious discussions in our family, of course, but we hold such wildly divergent views that I don't think any of us has real insight into any of the others. My brother became something of a disciple of Nietzche in university, for instance, but I know his business has led him into contact with many Hindus and Muslims, and he takes enough interest in people that he now knows something of each. Has it affected his thinking?

I don't know. I've never asked.