Eighth Topic: Jake Meyers

Impress everyone by telling them you know Jake Meyers. Talk about the old MUSHing days. And let them know that I know everything because I'm Grendel.

I know Jake Meyers. Intimately. You may find this hard to believe but I assure you that it is true. So you've heard he runs the city? You've heard he can crush people with a wave of his little finger? Also true. As sure as the spurs on his boots.

Ha! Those were the days!

I will never forget when rizzo41 came back to our dorm room one night after some time in the computer lab and said, "I found a new MUSH, it's another roleplaying MUSH, but it's set in Pittsburgh and it's about vampires." Neither of us had ever so much as HEARD of the White Wolf vampire roleplaying game system and were not even remotely what you would consider "gamers," but hey, who doesn't like vampires? I mean, really. Vampires, dudes.

So we made some characters (once again realizing we knew NOTHING about the game system) and started playing. I never got into tabletop role playing and don't really understand the appeal of hanging out with a bunch of rule books and dice and whatever, talking to people face-to-face about wanting to use power A to defeat enemy B and get reward C to build experience and buy D. Just thinking about it makes me feel a little silly. But online roleplaying, to me, ended up being more like group story-writing. And I can dig a little fiction. Somehow I gravitated toward other creative folks, folks who were less interested in "winning" and dice-rolling and more into choosing words carefully and painting a good picture. I guess that's how I shimmied my way into the power-players.

So Jake Meyers, Prince of the city, ended up being a really funny and sweet guy that we all know and love - my dear friend Guy Incognito. You will know him as the Ultimate Ratbutt in our yearly Superbowl bet (even though I lost this year, pooey!), and even though I haven't seen him in forever, I think of him often and am really glad I played that silly vampire game back in the day or else we'd never have met.

Come to think of it, I think he /caused/ the big Patriots upset. Because he's Grendel.

Ninth Topic: Religion

I'd like to know more about your religious leanings. I believe you've mentioned the UCC church, which (if I'm remembering correctly) is the one open to everyone from atheists to hardcore jesus-freaks. Where do you fall on the spectrum.

Are your beliefs and Jen's beliefs fairly well aligned? If not, how do you work around that?

I was raised Roman Catholic. All my life, with 13 years of Catholic school to boot. And you know what? I loved it. I was really into it. I sang in the children's choir. Did liturgical dances with other girls in my class. Played sports through CYO (Catholic Youth Organization). Taught religious education. Was the youth member of the parish council. Was a peer minister in high school. Did a bazillion service projects. I had big church love.

And there were a lot of things the Catholic Church and I didn't agree on. And while there are certainly a large number of Catholics who believe in a sort of "Catholic Buffet" where you pick and choose what things you want to believe in and follow, I had too much respect for the Catholic Church to do that. I really think that if you are going to be a member of a church or religion, you really should be able to stand by everything they say. So I left.

From there I spent a little time exploring my pagan side. I enjoyed writing and doing rituals and liked the philosophical stuff behind it all, but I had a heck of a time finding community, because I couldn't really find a group of pagans that wanted to be more pro-pagan than anti-christian. So I went to the Unitarian Universalists, because they'll take anyone. I belonged to a great UU church in Bangor, Maine and then an okay church in Columbus, Ohio. And when Jen and I moved back to Massachusetts I conned her into going to some services with me. But we didn't really find a congregation in the Boston area that we really clicked with. So we occasionally went to the church in Quincy, or sometimes to Arlington Street. I wasn't really feeling the UU stuff as much but I love their youth program.

When we came here to Western MA, we again looked for a UU church to join. And again we just didn't mesh with the people. Most of the congregations were older, not terribly approachable. We went to one church many times and people didn't really talk to us. I wanted to switch churches but as Jen always told me she wasn't Christian, I didn't really know where we could both go. But later she said that she felt like UU sermons were like sitting in a comparative religion or philosophy class instead of church and was amenable to looking around.

I was really interested in the United Church of Christ because they have a strong social justice component (which I love about the UUs) and they do the Jesus thing without using Jesus to put people down, or persecute people, or whatever. They really seem to get to the heart of what Jesus was (at least to me) and have a kind of Jesus I can really get into, the kind of Jesus I really loved when I was a child. And that's what I want for my child(ren), you know? That "Jesus loves me" feeling, that idea of Christianity that is all about helping others and lifting people up and promoting peace. So I finally convinced Jen that we should check out this one particular church, and she agreed.

And I went into labor the night before. Oops. So that got put on hold.

We eventually went when Punk was about 3 months old, and as soon as we walked in, people TALKED to us. One couple came right up to us when we weren't sure what to do (we had intended to bring Punk into the service but someone trying to be helpful told us to bring her to the child care area which we were sooo not cool with) and just started talking about what they did with their daughter when she was a baby, etc. Just really welcoming. And there were young couples there, and young families, and LOTS of kids. It was just a real "Aha" moment for me, and I knew right away that it was the place for me.

I was concerned that Jen wouldn't want to go again because of the Jesus factor, but I think she realized how much I really wanted the Jesus factor and she did agree that it felt more like church than the UUs, and she wanted a church family to raise our daughter in. So we joined, and Punk will be baptized this spring. I don't know if Jen is as into it as I am (she was raised Catholic; her mom is Catholic and her dad is Jewish) but I think she is as committed to bring faith to our kids.

Yay!

But as for the spectrum... I consider myself a big fan of Jesus and Christlike living. I don't mean being a fundamentalist Bible-thumper, or in any kind of hellfire and brimstone kind of way. I mean living like Christ. I think he was the ultimate social worker.