January 2010 Archives - Momastery

Anonymous said…

I love, LOVE this blog, but sometimes feel lost when I read it because I am agnostic/atheist…not quite sure. Anyway, Glennon, in terms of ideas for future posts, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, since so much of the other stuff you write about resonates with me.

Dear Anonymous,

Thank you for being brave. There are a lot of people who enjoy this blog and love the Monkees, but feel conflicted when they read my posts about Jesus and the Bible. Thank you for speaking up for all of them.

When I write about Jesus, it’s because he’s on my heart and mind. Often, my heart and mind are the only two topics I have to write about. I don’t write about Jesus because I am secretly hoping that my posts will persuade you to love Jesus too. I really don’t. I write about Craig a lot, because I think that he is an incredible man who has helped save me. I don’t write about him secretly hoping that you will want him, too. Please, no. The man is vulnerable these days and could probably be lured away by a decent casserole. Be kind. We need him.

I get a lot of emails from people who are concerned that my faith posts will alienate readers. These readers are worried that people will read my thoughts about Jesus and decide that since they don’t feel the same way, Momastery must not be for them. I LOVE these people because they care about the Momastery so much that they are trying to be tender zookeepers. But I try to remind them that Monkees are not Monkees because we are all the same. My goal as a writer is not to be as neutral as possible so everyone is tricked into believing that we are one big homogeneous crew. That is not sustainable or real. That is like trying to solve racism by demanding that everyone become “colorblind.” I don’t think that the best way to learn to celebrate and cherish differences is to pretend we don’t see them, or worse, that they don’t exist.

My goal is to share my life and thoughts as honestly and gently as humanly possible, in hopes that others will do the same, and in hopes that eventually we will all find that we don’t have to be afraid of each other. I think that learning to talk about and listen to differing ideas about faith without becoming personally offended is a worthwhile skill at which a lot of us are a little rusty. If everyone would practice this skill more, the world would be a much less horrifically violent place. Somebody needs to figure out how to be different and still have peace. Why not us?

The important thing for you to know, Anonymous, is that I don’t secretly think that you need to believe in Jesus like I do. I don’t secretly believe anything, Anonymous. If you’d like, you can read about my faith here.

For purposes of full disclosure, Monkees do have a few common beliefs, you can read about them here. That’s all though. Mostly, we are all very, very different. We are beautiful mysteries to each other and that is okay. That is great, I think. We don’t need to solve each other. We don’t even need to understand each other. We just need to treat each other kindly.

Anonymous…I am so grateful that you are here. It sounds like you and I are different. I do believe in Jesus and in the Bible as I understand it which is admittedly, not much. I really am a freaking walking bundle of faith. I am so full of faith that there is little room in me for anything else, like common sense. I run into things a lot, Anonymous, and I do things like accidentally store my keys in the oven and throw books in the washing machine and drive to Maryland when I am trying to go to the post office, which is two streets away. I live in Virginia, Anonymous, not Maryland. One might think that since He’s on my mind so much, God would help me out with these little details. He doesn’t, though. I don’t really get that.

Anyway, Anonymous, my point is that if you are a gourmet cooking atheist who is often complimented about her facial symmetry and obedient, demure daughters and doesn’t have to shop for pants at Gap Kids and still get them hemmed… then we are different, yes. But I don’t see that as a problem. I will never try to change you, because the truth is, in my heart of hearts, I don’t think you need to change. I hope you don’t think I need to either. I think that might be a good start for us. I bet we’d really like each other.

And I promise never to send you a “Jesus Loves This Chick” shirt. Mine’s cute though. It’s hot pink.

I’m so glad you’re here.

Have a wonderful weekend, Sweet Anonymous.

Love, Glennon

Hi everybody.

Last night, Amma and I watched some old home movies on my laptop together. We would have watched them on TV, but we don’t have a TV. We got rid of it when we decided that our family was being brainwashed by consumerism and wasting our lives away on the couch. We wanted more quiet, so we decided to create our own “Walden” experiment by living without a TV. Our decision was very rebellious and dramatic and revolutionary, I thought.

Here’s the thing. I miss my TV. I want it back. It’s been nice, you know, I guess, and I really do believe that life is better in most ways without it, but I still want it back. I feel out of the loop. I never know what’s going on in the world, and when I go to CNN.com to catch up, I try really hard to click on the important stories about the wars and natural disasters and thing such as this, but I always accidentally click on something about the Gosselins. And after reading about them, I get tired and my news time is over. So all I ever really know about the world is what Jon and Kate are doing. Also sometimes a little about Lindsay Lohan.

And also, there’s something comforting about flopping down on the couch at the end of a long day with my hubby and vegging out together. I miss it. I mean HOW MUCH CAN YOU REALLY TALK TO EACH OTHER? I think Craig and I may have hit our limit. And reading is great…reading is my favorite, but it’s so individual. We can read next to each other but we can’t really read together. I draw the line at marital read-alouds. And also, when I decided in my head that Craig and I would read together every night, I may have forgotten to factor in that Craig hates to read.

And, Oh My Gosh: HGTV. How I miss you HGTV. I think of you every single day, HGTV. How is the House Hunting going? The Divine Designing? Are you still Designing to Sell? Oh, we will meet again soon, Sweet, Sweet HGTV.

By the way: here’s a secret for you. While we don’t have TV service, we still have a little TV and DVD player downstairs that I keep to “do my yoga.” But I have NEVER “done my yoga” down there. All I have done is everyday say to my children “Hey guys! Since it’s a special occasion – would you three like to go downstairs and watch a movie and not come back up here unless someone is on fire?” And Chase always says “Mommy, why is it a special occasion again? It’s just Tuesday.” And I say, “This is the day that the LORD has made, Chase. Every day is a special occasion. Roll with it. Go.” So, the truth is that the entire Walden experiment is a bit of a sham anyway.

Or, maybe it’s not a sham. Maybe it just had a different outcome than I thought it would. Maybe the outcome is…I do want a TV. I do. I do. I really do. I mean, Thoreau didn’t live in the woods FOREVER. He came back. I wanna come back.

Here’s the other thing. I was going to write about Amma today. I think I got a little sidetracked. Oh, well. Here’s the video we watched together last night. I’d never seen it before. It will explain why my kids prefer to play with Craig than me. When I play “bookstore” I sit on the couch with my coffee and demand everyone use his library voice. Check out Tish’s body language, facial expressions, and attitude. It’s like she was made for customer service.

P.S. Today is the anniversary of Shayla Marie’s death. You can read about her here. We love you, Sunny.

A Love Letter

On Walden Mom

Teamwork

2009 Glennon Doyle Melton. All Rights Reserved.
Republication or redistribution of content, text or image, in part or in whole is strictly prohibited without prior written consent from the author.

A Love Letter

On Walden Mom

Teamwork

2009 var d=new Date(); yr=d.getFullYear(); if (yr!=2010) document.write("- "+yr); Glennon Doyle Melton. All Rights Reserved. Republication or redistribution of content, text or image, in part or in whole is strictly prohibited without prior written consent from the author.

2009 Glennon Doyle Melton. All Rights Reserved.
Republication or redistribution of content, text or image, in part or in whole is strictly prohibited without prior written consent from the author.