So, in case you haven't been playing along at home, the Lad and I are two different religions. Two, uh, really different religions. We're not talking issues of 'is it really the body of Christ or merely symbolic?', we're talking, 'Messiah? What Messiah? Dude, I'm still waiting. This J.C. guy? Um, no.' vs. 'The cracker IS the flesh. No really, despite its starchy taste.' And we are each the type of person to cheerfully support what the other believes: he didn't want to move me to a place devoid of Jewish community, I felt bad that the parishes near our new house are all so tainted by the unfathomable scandal in the Catholic Church.

Our largest fight ever was over religion; specifically, over baptism, and over what it meant when we went through pre-marital prep with our priest. Unsurprisingly, religion has become quite the issue again in our house, as we anticipate the snarklet nouveau est arrive. While we've come to a reasonable approach for when the kid's born, there's the whole issue of how to raise and how to educate. My snappy statement has always been 'faith is more important than religion', which, you know, is easier said than done. Today the Lad and I drove 30 min so he could go to services at the Jesuit University in the city, and I put my feet up and read at the Barnes and Noble nearby (we're going to services with friends at the Methodist church on Tuesday, and I can stand only so much churchin up in one 3 week span of time, given the Wedding o the Century). We were agreed that if the Jesuits, true to form, were intelligent no nonsense hardasses who didn't suck, that perhaps the Lad would take the kid there for services, and once a month I'd join them and we'd brunch afterwards.

This is a great plan, except, uh, I need to come up with a way to 'teach' my child Judaism. Teach him in the absence of actually going to Temple, as my Temple options here are not enticing, and by not enticing I mean 'you will not get me to set foot in there, no no no'. We run the extremes of Prada-clad Showy Conservative with Astronomical Join Fees vs. Extreme Orthodox to the point where I would be the only married woman not in a wig. And nada inbetween. I need to do some serious digging as I'm sure there's an option somewhere around here, but the fact is, the closest flavor choice i embrace is Reconstructionism, and even then, I have some serious issues with it (Uh. Zion. No.), and this would be how I found myself sitting in the Barnes and Noble on Country Club Plaza searching for Judaism for Kids books.

How I wish I could have had a mimosa with brunch. Goddamn. Er, as it were.