How am I to know what all the new and upcoming memes are these days? Goodness! Thankfully The Gal is keeping me current.
So, onward to days one, two and three:
Day 1: Five Ways to Win (my) Heart:
a) you’ll have an amazing vocabulary and are not afraid to whip it out (ahem!) in every day conversation
b) you’ll get my inside jokes
c) you’ll write stories with me
d) you’ll clean the snow off my car in the winter
e) you’ll love my family like I do
Day 2: Something you feel strongly about:
Freedom of and from religion.
I do not think religion has any place in our government. Do I live my life by my spiritual principles and beliefs? Yes, I do. Does that mean that those principles and beliefs must also be held by everyone else? No.
Despite what many seem to think, this is not a nation founded upon Christian beliefs.
Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli says this (my emphasis):
As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, — as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen, — and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
I resent laws being made based not on the highest good of the citizens but biblical tenets. That isn’t right. What you believe is between you and God (or no God) and let your actions show that. But to act as if your beliefs are the only ones that exists is, in my opinion, detrimental to this country and the laws we all live by.
Day 3: A book you love:
Oh, I have many of these. “A Prayer for Owen Meany” is one of my all-time favorites because OWEN was a character I really understood.
When the book ended, I actually cried because I was going to miss being in his world. (And I was on a public transportation bus so that was embarrassing.) I’ve read many books by John Irving (who is rather a quirky storyteller) and this remains my favorite of his and in my top five of all time.
#2 makes me sad because I learned in school that we litigated this as a country when we elected a Catholic in 1960. JFK gave a landmark speech to Protestant ministers where he said he saw the, “America for which our forefathers died, when they fled here to escape religious test oaths that denied office to members of less favored churches.”
And #3 interested me because Owen is such a (literally) faithful character. You’re an eclectic lady.