Mr. Jones and me
E-word,
I think maybe the worst thing about belonging to a community is the pressure to keep up with the Jones'. It's all in my head, I know, but lately I feel like I need to move into a house that is the right size and is in the right neighborhood. Like, be appropriate for my age and my self-evaluated level in life.
Lately I've been trying to have a better relationship with God (despite the kind of crazy stuff I write- writing has to be an outlet for me to release some of the stuff that builds up), and I have to say that I find it highly ironic that I perceive the most pressure to keep up with Mr and Ms. Jones not from my parents (I'm not sure why they care?) or my wife (though that's a weird one; sometimes there is a ton of pressure, sometimes there is none at all), but from church members. Going to church can be a mind-blowing thing, really. It's almost like walking into a Saks Fifth Avenue sometimes, where everyone seems to be totally blinged out. Parking there is like parking at a Starbucks in Greenwich, CT. What is with all of the Rolex and Cartier watches, the huge diamond engagement rings, and Louis Vuitton handbags? Why are there so many BMW, Mercedes, and Lexus cars in the church parking lot?
We join churches to build a community of like-minded Christians, but I swear that there is far more pressure joining one of these 'communities' than there ever is when I just hang out with friends that I make organically. It must all be in my head. I got some things to work out.
Again, ironically, last Sunday's sermon was about the first commandment.
Labels: Alanis Morrissette
posted by Toe Jaleo @ 9:30 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
i have an odd relationship with religion. baptized lutheren, but found myself growing up non-denominational, fundamentalist (for lack of a better word), and educated that way from the age of four. always wondered about the so called prosperous christians, heard about them but never met them until my last real attempt at finding a religion that worked, which was a prebyterian forward thinking church in wexford, pa, 2001.
i think about it all the time, God and such, and get pressure from the family (despite how wonderful religious disharmony has worked out for all of my relatives and especially immediate family), but it still encourages me. maybe i will find something like you have, without the bling. what does the penitent man do before God?
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