Halling Go To Alaska

It has occurred to me that I haven't done a post with substance in a while.  I used to put it all out there. Wear my heart on my sleeve.  And I haven't lately.  I think part of the issue is the fact that since all the craziness of the first half of this year, things have finally calmed down and I'm enjoying not thinking any more than I have to. But there has been a lot going through my mind lately.  Some of it not fit for the blog. ************************************************************************* I know I'm not the only one in this situation. And I've mentioned it before, I'm sure.  I have friends with many different points of view.  I'm actually in the minority among the people I hang out with that I'm a little left-leaning in comparison.  And many times I go out of my way to *not* have certain conversations because I'm scared that their viewpoints will be so different than mine that I will have trouble overlooking those viewpoints.  Well...

Okay, this is going to be long. I'll be amazed if anyone makes it to the end! I don't even know how to concisely convey what I want to, so it won't be short and sweet - bear with me. It's religion and politics in my life. It's no less complicated because it's my life. If anything there is more gray rather than less. I just need to put all of this out there. Make of it what you will. Being raised Catholic we went to church every Sunday. Our family never missed unless we were on vacation. From early on I noticed that my dad never received communion, but he was always there with us. When I was about 8, shortly after I received my first communion, I remember asking my dad why he didn't receive communion. He was raised in a large Catholic family and attended Catholic schools through graduation. It didn't make sense to me why he was always going yet never fully "participated". His reply was something to the effect of it being a conversat...