Family Woes

Last weekend revealed two things about my family.

1) That I have to face the fact that my grandma will die sometime soon. I went with my sister and her family to visit her on Sunday. She looked terrible. She reminded me of Mick the last time I saw him alive. A thin, pale, sickly version of the person I used to know. Not once did she take a sip to drink or a bite to eat during the 2 hours we were there. She complained about everyone bugging her to eat and drink more, but the fact is that if she doesn't she will die soon. It was heart breaking to see how much Grandpa still loves her and to see the shadow of death in her eyes. I saw the same shadow in Mick's eyes, but didn't really understand it at the time. Now I see it all too clearly. Who knows, I could be wrong. She could surprise us all and survive longer than most of us are predicting. But my gut tells me she is reaching the end.

2) That my niece's father is a religious fundamentalist. A while ago while visiting my sister I found myself in a awkward position when I brought up the subject of that horrible military policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." I assumed that Jason was had similar political views to Nicole, so I wasn't prepared when he agreed with the policy and also admitted that he thought that homosexuality was a sin. Overall our discussion was calm and decent. And thank the gods for Nicole speaking up stating her opinion that it wasn't a sin. Still, I couldn't help but leave the conversation with this small knot of worry in my stomach for my niece.

Last weekend that knot grew a little larger. I was at my sisters gardening and walked into the their living room while Jason was telling he son Garret about "scientific" support for young earth theory. Ok, he didn't use those words but that was just of what he was saying (young earth theory is basically that the earth isn't as old as scientists say, but only as old as calculations based on the biblical texts). After stating how I strongly disagreed with him, he started to engage me in a debate about evolution and my brain betrayed me. I've studied this subject before and I should have been able to come up with better responses than I did.

Yet my weakness in debating any subject is that I'm always hesitant to say anything as definate unless I on hand a list of sources. This never works when debating with a religious fundamentalist. I know that the "scientific references" to support intelligent design Jason was referencing are pseudo-scientists from schools created by the christian fundamentalists to combat evolution. But did I think of this while talking to Jason, NO! Argh, my liberal education has failed me.

So once again I find myself worrying about if Zoey is going to be brainwashed to believe homosexuality is a sin and that evolution isn't supported by science. Oy vey, at least I can be her crazy liberal aunt and provide her with a different view of the world.