Faith

Julie was rearranging some things in her closet on Saturday, some of which were laying out on the bed when Joe bounded into the room and flung himself on the bed.  He proceeded to go through the garments he found there including the dress Julie wore to his baptism.  Joe referred to it as a shirt and when Julie corrected him, she added that she'd worn it to his baptism. Of course Joe wanted to know what a baptism is. Julie told him that it is a ceremony in which one joins some religions, which are formal expressions of faith.  Well of course he asked what faith is.

Now Fans, we've fielded questions on death so this wasn't our first Big Talk, but admittedly, we haven't yet had occasion to have that many. We have nevertheless noticed that it's good to have thought about Big Talk Topics in advance since they tend to come up when one is, you know, rearranging a closet on a Saturday afternoon.

And faith! How to explain it in a way that a five-year-old would understand that it's what makes you decide to take another turn at bat after you've been pitched a curve ball? To love! To have children! To take all kinds of leaps in life.  And that you've got to keep the faith.  Got to keep the faith that all things work together for good.

Julie was ready to talk about faith.  We don't get to church every week, but there was a week we did when Father Dale (who is awesome) spoke about faith.  He likened it to Rainer Maria Rilke's swan and the ease with which it glides, an ease which is only apparent, because underneath the water, its feet are beating away like mad.  Father Dale's point was that you work your faith so it can buoy you up, so you can glide, and you can't see it, but you know it's there.  Julie felt like that was as perfect a definition of faith as she was likely to ever get, and it stuck with her.  So she made the swan a duck, borrowed the rest, and told Joe: "That's faith."  And boy did she feel proud.  (Nailed it!)

And Joe said, "Like fake food?"

No.

And Julie said, "No, Joe.  No.  Faith.  Not fake. Nothing like fake."

Maybe she should have gone with the baseball metaphor.  (Can't use that for the Sex Talk after all.  All wrong.)