First, I had to listen to my brother ramble on about how Mexicans are taking all the jobs in Georgia. And, damn, I’m sympathetic. He’s got great restaurant experience and he’s been out of work a long time, but it’s not like he’s owed a spot at the front of the job line. I don’t know. I felt like I handled the conversation poorly. It’s like, yeah, I hear that it sucks, but blaming other people whose lives also suck for your life sucking is missing the point. But he’s pissed, so I don’t feel like he heard me.
Then my dad calls to say that my cousin’s kid has a tumor in his chest (though it doesn’t appear to be cancerous, thank goodness), the same cousin whose wife is an actual cancerous tumor survivor, so far. You know how that terrible shit goes. So, my dad says that my uncle believes that this is God trying to get my cousin’s attention, because of my cousin’s whacked out religious beliefs. My uncle believes my cousin to be Buddhist, and so does my Dad. My cousin is pretty public about being a humanist who doesn’t believe in the divinity of Jesus (like been on NPR to talk about this level of public), which, sure, doesn’t preclude him from also being a Buddhist, but it seems weird that, when he talks about his religious beliefs, he identifies as a humanist and not a Buddhist. I suspect he may just be letting his mom think he’s a Buddhist, because at least that’s a religion.
Not that this matters. My uncle believes that God would give people He’s not mad at, some of whom are children, terrible illnesses in order to get a person who is not them to shape up.
So, my dad tells me this and I say “So, Uncle B. thinks God is a sadistic asshole who tortures children?” And my dad’s all “I’m not getting into it.” But I was flabbergasted and pissed, which is not fair to my dad. He doesn’t believe God gives tumors to the children of maybe-Buddhists in order to “send them a message.”
But then my dad tells me that one of my uncle’s dogs died on Monday, which is also sad, but I just blurted out, “Oh, Uncle B’s dog died? And what message does he think God was trying to send him by killing his dog?”
Which then made my dad mad and he hung up.
So, not good. But Christ Jesus.
Oh my fucking God, I could not even finish this post without my brother calling to find out about the Nation of Islam, which I can only take to mean he’s going to pick a religious fight and the call me continually all night to tell him about the shit he’s fighting with his friends about.
Or maybe he’s joining the Nation and then my uncle can call my dad to tell him all the terrible things God will do to my nephews until my brother comes back to Protestantism.
Tiny Cat Pants 