Some memories fade

I wish that I could expound at length about the nuances of the Lutheran faith but I cannot.  Very little has been retained; most of it was rote memorization parroted as needed to pass the requirements for confirmation.  I remember Luther's Small Catechism being a big deal, but I can't recall anything about it.

It seems to me that children grow up belonging to the same faith as their parents; Catholics raise Catholic children, and likewise with everyone else.  But what about inter-faith marriages?  Either husband or wife usually convert; I doubt that they both convert to a third faith.  I wonder if any kid while growing up decided that his parent's faith was for the birds and wanted to be a something different, a Scientologist perhaps.

Anecdotal evidence was that Catholic women were pretty insistent on the children being raised Catholic, but there were plenty of exceptions.  My mother and her sister were raised Catholic, but Mom converted to Lutheran and Aunt Ev became a Mormon.

Then there's Judaism, where the religion is passed on through the maternal line.  If your mother is Jewish you are Jewish, no questions asked.  But what about the women who converted to Judaism, are their children automatically considered truly Jewish or does it take a few generations to become fully fledged?   There are many interesting points to ponder.

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There's an aspect of Original Sin that I don't think has ever been mentioned.  Maybe the real sin wasn't disobeying God but instead was succumbing to the temptation of the serpent.  I call it the first use of marketing, "Eat this and you'll be as cool as God!" or words to that effect.  How could  Eve not fall such a sales pitch?  Consequently, I could make the case that advertising and marketing are the works of the devil, luring us all into the depths of sorrow.  It's tough to resist the temptations, often to our regret.  I'm always suspicious of heavily advertised products; if they were so good they wouldn't need advertising at all, and if I've never heard of the product I probably don't need it in the first place.

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"The Good Place" is a cable TV series mentioned a while back by Mr. Beagles.  It's pretty good, a comedy which delves into metaphysical matters and the afterlife.

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Alan Watts is a guy I've heard of but never followed up on.  Didn't he rename himself Baba Ram Dass?  Seemed a little too goofy for me at the time, but I have plenty of Jefferson Airplane albums.  They still sound good, which isn't bad for fifty year old music, and are in heavy rotation on the old iPod.  Saw the Airplane once, at the old Electric Theater on Clark Street; the Iron Butterfly opened, and a few weeks later I was at Ft. Polk.  Oh, Wow....

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Any conjecture on the upcoming inauguration?  I bet the TV ratings will be through the roof as people anticipate a clown show, train wreck, or maybe even a coup (I hope it's only a clown show).  One of the rumored Russian hotel tapes are supposed to surface before then, which will add a piquant tone to the celebrations.  In any case, it should be unlike anything else seen in these United States.  Hold on tight, it's going to be a bumpy ride.