How do you know it's true if you don't believe in it?"
"I...huh?"
"How can you understand something you don't believe in?"
"Shin, that doesn't make any sense. That's like saying you can't understand leprechauns unless you believe in them."
"Do you understand leprechauns?"
"I don't believe in them."
"There you go.

Pete Hautman

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So I sit and endure the stares and the pangs and twinges of Catholic guilt, knowing that I am doing the right thing if I'm right, and the right thing even if I'm wrong. Being Catholic is hard. Being ex-Catholic is even harder.

Pete Hautman

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Do they really think that attending mass will make them better, or happier, or save them from an eternity of hellfire? Maybe they do. But there are something like ten thousand religions in the world. What makes them think that they happen to have been born into the right one? I have asked this question several times. So far, I haven't heard a good answer. Better to start your own religion, I think. That way you get to be your own pope.

Pete Hautman

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...TV was entertainment of the last resort. There was nothing on during the day in the summer other than game shows and soap operas. Besides, a TV-watching child was considered available for chores: take out the trash, clean your room, pick up that mess, fold those towels, mow the lawn... the list was endless. We all became adept at chore-avoidance. Staying out of sight was a reliable strategy. Drawing or painting was another: to my mother, making art trumped making beds. A third choir-avoidance technique was to read. A kid with his or her nose in a book is a kid who is not fighting, yelling, throwing, breaking things, bleeding, whining, or otherwise creating a Mom-size headache. Reading a book was almost like being invisible - a good thing for all concerned.

Pete Hautman

Tags: growing-up nostalgia 1960s chores summer 1960s-nostalgia

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If you can imagine it, you're halfway there

Pete Hautman

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