I am public, what are you?

I've been remiss...I just saw that my last post was almost 3 weeks ago. Been a crazy couple of weeks.

My inlaws left last Saturday, only to have to return this Saturday. One of my mother-in-law's relatives, Agnes, a wonderful and vibrant lady who I have known for almost 20 years, passed away on Thursday. She was 87, and from what I understand, knew she was going to die for way longer than any of us did, she was told she had cancer (pancreatic I think), and kept this to herself, not wanting to hurt her quality of life, nor burden those who cared for her. Tomorrow is the funeral, a Catholic mass and burial.

I struggle with these religious moments, I was not raised with a religion, my mother is a non-practicing Jew, and my father is a non-practicing Catholic. They gave me a choice when I was growing up, and I chose to be "nothing". So, I will be the lonely "jew" (since my mom is Jewish, I am automatically Jewish), feeling like everyone else in the Church is staring at my proverbial horns, as they go up to the dais, and receive Communion. For this reason, I truly feel like I have to do more for my children than merely tell them to make a choice, b/c the truth is, no kid in their right mind will opt to go to religious instruction, church or temple vs. um...doing nothing! We have been discussing our local Unitarian church, now we just need to move beyond "discussion" ;-)

This all reminds me of one the smartest things my sister said: Our next door neighbors (3 boys) were Catholic, and went to Holy Innocents Catholic School, my sister and I went to P.S. 139 (public school). One day, Billy, the oldest boy, said to Jodi "I go to Cathloic School because I am Catholic, what are you?" And Jodi, in her 6 year old wisdom, said "I'm Public, I go to Public School." :-) Perfection!