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current tune: further seem forever - pictures of shorelines

last month i stood up at my friend nick's wedding. mmm, adam in a monkey suit. it was pretty cool hanging out all weekend with those friends from grade school. missing the girl was sad, but at least i was able to make it home both nights.

the only thing less than cool was communion.

quick background: catholics believe that when the priest blesses the bread and wine, that it actually becomes The Body and The Blood, though "transubstantiation". this means that every last drop or crumb is sacred. if any falls on the floor, it must be picked up, and consumed. the priest must finish the crumbs, and the wine. (only he gets to drink the wine, since the body contains the blood).

abstracted from Jonathan Swift's "Tale of a Tub"

since i'm an atheist, and all my friends know, The other groomsman i'd grown up with explained that i could just say "blessing" after my name, and i wouldn't have to partake if i didn't want. then, whilst waiting for the bridesmaids, nick or one of the other brothers passed down the same info, although with the "telephone game" it's hard to be sure wether i "could" or "should". Third time, the father of the groom lays a heavy paw on my shoulder and says "WHEN" i get up there i "SHOULD" take a blessing. Because, you know, an atheist eating christ is far worse than it falling on the floor. which, incidentally, some did. Dan and i theorize that papal law actually specifies that the priest should eat what falls, but he just threw it back in with the rest. We also noted that it might not have happened, had there been altar boys. We won't suggest why that may have been.

I don't know if i should feel some of the heat for making my atheism so widely known, or whether it's purely on the catholics for this essay in bad form. or whether, since i grew up protestant, and don't believe in transubstantiation (see tale of a tub for more on that) it rubs me wrong. i don't get upset at other religions that aren't open to non-believers touching holy objects. It was cool that dan and mike were both taken aback by the awkwardness of it all, tho.

it'll be fun to have a proper atheist wedding next month, in opposition to the properly catholic one.