I had almst two dozen people shake my hand and congratulate me on Sunday after my Chrismation. The only other times something like that has happened were highschool graduation and Birthdays, and usually those things get talked about, passed around, celebrated, but the Chrismation feels like an odd thing to bring up with all but exactly five of my friends. Not that I think any of my other friends or colleagues would give me shit for it or be all that weirded out, but,  I don’t know, maybe? 

I told Jack that I might write about a thought I had, that perhaps all of the differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism could be extrapolated from the simple fact that the former practices the Jesus Prayer, and the latter, the rosary. I don’t believe there are any rules about each group and what they ought to do or how they ought to pray, these things are simply more or less popular. Stylistic, little “t” traditions. 

And while I may have thoughts about that, I don’t think I really have much in the way of ideas, and I have far fewer opinions.

That is really a large part of what I have been finding so beautiful and enjoyable about this whole affair: being an idiot. 

for my Chrismation I chose Saint Joseph as my patron. I was put on the spot a bit when Father Mark asked me in front of the congregation why, I said because I love being a father, and he was a really good one.  Downstairs during coffee hour a friend asked me what my real reasons were while another joked about how I had none, as I didn’t have an intellectual bone in my body. Clearly I have something of a reputation already. 

The irony is that I do not have much of an additional reason. I love being a father, Joseph was the adopted father of Jesus. A large part of it is that I simply love the iconography of Jesus on Joseph’s shoulders. It’s so humanizing, so fun, it’s something I do every day, and it was a real change in my relationship with Roby. I can feel it when I look at it.

Maybe that’s more philosophizing than most people give it, I don’t know. It’s enough for me anyways.