I Suck At First Communion

Saturday was a day of firsts. For my nephew (PJ), it was his first communion. Luckily, I suck at first communion. After all, I still have original sin in the eyes of God. (For anyone curious, I have never been baptized. Hence, the original sin.)

So it only makes sense then that I have never been a fan of religion. My point of view in terms of religion is from the perspective of someone on the outside looking in. Had my parents been deeply pious, my view on religion may have been different. (I doubt my point of view would be any different because there is still a lot of hypocrisy in organized religion and I am not a big fan of hypocrisy.) Many of my friends who were raised with religion aren't religious. In fact, many people in the United States today who were raised within a religion aren't religious. If anything, most of them are pseudo-religious, attending church services (if ever only) on days like Christmas and Easter. Where are they during the other Sundays? Probably not thinking about religion.

Thus, religion has always appeared to me to be... well, a religion of convenience. Can't eat meat on Fridays during Lent? Well, if St. Patrick's Day falls on Friday... meat is allowed on Fridays. Unless the Almighty were Irish and loved corned beef, why would God say that situation is okay? It makes no sense. Hence, the religion of convenience.

Nevertheless, religion is one of those touchy subjects that seem to get people all up in arms. After all, wars were started over religion. Sad but true. So I pretty much leave well enough alone. Eventually, I will have to deal with religion at some point while raising my daughter (Briana). Were it solely my decision, I would wait to introduce the whole concept of organized religion into Briana's life when she is capable of making her own decisions. Ideally, I would like to introduce her to the various religions. That way, she can choose to follow whatever religious beliefs she wants, or even not follow any of them at all. As long as it's her decision (and not a tainted decision), I'm okay with it. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that my way of doing things would be frowned upon by other influencing factors in Briana's life.

Of course, all of this has nothing to do with PJ's first communion. PJ's first communion, however, provided me with some quality father-daughter bonding time on Saturday. Karen attended PJ's service. So I got to spend a couple of hours with just Briana.

So what does one do during quality bonding time? Well, it turns out that on Saturday, I took Briana on her first trip to the library. Thrilling, I know. Apparently, several of the librarians had previously requested to see Briana. (You know you go to the library too much when librarians ask to see your newborn daughter.) And that's what I did.

Needless to say, the librarians loved seeing Briana. I think Briana enjoyed it too. And what's not to enjoy? Having everyone giving you their undivided attention... Briana, it turns out, just stared at my favorite librarian (Vicki). She kept watching her.

Following the library, I took Briana to the bank as well. Interestingly enough, there were requests from the bank employees to bring her in as well so that they could meet her. (You know you go to the bank too much when...) Unfortunately on Saturday, many of the bank employees who had requested to see Briana were not there. So it was just a simple bank transaction day.

Apparently, I had one of the bank employees laughing in stitches. The bank has a bowl of lollipops by the teller window. Jokingly, I asked Briana if she wanted a lollipop. Well, the bank teller (who looked like he was twelve), thought I was crazy offering a lollipop to a newborn daughter. It wasn't until I said "Just kidding" seconds later that the bank teller broke out in laughter because he thought I was serious in offering Briana a lollipop.

Anyway, by the time I was done with the library and the bank, quality father-daughter bonding time was over. I headed over to my favorite sister-in-law's (Janine) place for the first communion party. And as usual, it was a good party.

Of course, when I first arrived, there were no other cars in Janine's driveway. Naturally, I began to worry if the party were somewhere else other than her place because I was out and about for some time. (It wouldn't be the first time that I got the plans mixed up.) I thought that there would be a lot of cars in her driveway by the time I arrived. It turns out that the first communion mass just happened to be extremely long. (Yet another reason not to be religious.) It was not until Janine's BFF (Gretchen) opened the door that I breathed a sigh of relief.

But yeah, the first communion party was good. As usual, a lot of people got to hold Briana during the party. She must have been passed to everyone: Karen's grandparents, my favorite brother-in-law's (PJ) brother (Mark), Mark's fiancee (Emily), PJ and Mark's mother, Karen's aunt (Denise), Gretchen, Janine, and Karen's mother (possibly a few times). And I'm sure Briana loved every minute of being held.