Veggie Tales Does Seem Like Sort of a Capitalist Juggernaut, Though

I think back on my ponderings of religion shortly before the boy was born, and it kinda makes me laugh a little now. It's funny that this post got one of my highest comment counts (partly because I commented all over it myself). I pondered and wondered and worried, and now, it turns out that the religious indoctrination of my kid is mostly being handled by animated vegetables with no hands or feet. And despite all my intellectual posturings, I'm pretty much O.K. with that.

An asparagus sings to my son that he need not be afraid of monsters on TV or under his bed or in his closet because "God is bigger than the Boogie Man." That same asparagus also tells him that it's comforting to know that God loves him, even if he forgets to feed his dog, or if he sings off-key. As uncomfortable as I am and have been over religion and religious indoctrination, those seem like pretty good lessons for the boy to absorb, even if they mean little to me personally.

This morning, I thought of that religious discussion at Olive Garden while we watched Silly Little Thing Called Love, which is mostly about God's love, and just had to sort of giggle at myself. One of the many lessons for me in fatherhood is that no matter how I think and plan and worry and anticipate and imagine how things will be, they will be different. Life is unpredictable, and the actual experience does more to shape what will happen than all the thoughts I can think or words I can type or philosophies I can philosophize. So worry as I may have about how I would teach the at-the-time-still-waiting-in-the-wings Thumper about God and religion, our lives together proceed as they will proceed. He has already asked, "What's the Bible?" and he will over time ask about God. And those conversations will proceed as they proceed, more or less independently of whatever imaginary conversations I've already had in my head with him.