What Christianity Can Do For You!

There I am sitting at my apartment/condo whatever you want to call it and my cell phone rings. Checking the number I notice it is from a friend of mine. He is a firefighter and I know it was his 24 hours own, because my neighbor works the same job just opposite shift. I answer the phone and we talk a bit about nothing and then he asks if I can do something for him. Small talk your way into a favor, I was expecting this a bit. He wanted me to buy some Magic: The Gathering cards for him. You see he is building a new deck and needs a few cards to make it work.

Now why ask me to buy the cards, you say. Well it is simple, his wife doesn't like the game and thinks it is a bit evil. She really doesn't want him spending money on the cards. Mind you he makes plenty of money for her and the two kids and she works also. So it is not an issue of finances. She just thinks the game is not very Christian, which it isn't but it is not suppose to be either. It is fantasy.

Let's look at that word.

Fantasy - a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting. Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of scientific and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three (collectively known as speculative fiction).

That is a description from Wiki of the genre. Now here is the definition.

Fantasy:

1 obsolete: hallucination
2: fancy; especially: the free play of creative imagination
3: a creation of the imaginative faculty whether expressed or merely conceived: as
a: a fanciful design or invention
b: a chimerical or fantastic notion
c: fantasia
d: imaginative fiction featuring especially strange settings and grotesque characters —called also fantasy fiction
4: caprice
5: the power or process of creating especially unrealistic or improbable mental images in response to psychological need; also: a mental image or a series of mental images (as a daydream) so created fantasies of adolescence
6: a coin usually not intended for circulation as currency and often issued by a dubious authority (as a government-in-exile)

Okay obviously we are talking about definition 3 here and part d of that definition. The keyword to me in the definition is imaginative. It ain't real folks. Why is there a stigma associated with imagination? Just because your silly old book has some imaginative things in it, doesn't make them real or anything that talks about something similar real.

A card game is not going to destroy the world. Video games are not inherently evil, like my ex told me after we were married (not a good sign of things to come). You know sometimes a card game is a card game.

So instead of just letting him have his hobbies and interests, my friend is now hiding his actions from his wife. Even something small like this can't be healthy for a relationship. I am not saying their marriage will fall apart, I am saying that they are not fully embracing one another as a whole. Why? Because of a silly card game and an equally silly religious idea.

Weekend fun

My dad had his surgery on Friday. Everything went great, he was actually able to go home a day early. He can already walk and get around. He has trouble getting up from a sitting or laying down position is all. He also said he has a dull ache in his hip but nothing severe.

Saturday night I went to a friend's 40th birthday party. I made an awesome pineapple habanero salsa. Tasted wonderful but had people reaching for drinks, followed by going after more salsa. The salsa itself had 12 habanero peppers in it, seeds and all.

I had to cut up the peppers by hand and didn't wear gloves while doing it. My cat came up to my hand smelled it shook her head and didn't want to have anything to do with my hand for the rest of the day a most of Sunday. Sunday, the capsaicin still on my fingers was burning as I tried to play games. Also never wear contacts on a day you cut up peppers. My eyes burned for awhile after I took the contacts out by hand. Not one of my most brilliant moves.

At the party, I got to sit down and talk with a friend mine. We have both been through divorces and just have a lot in common. We started talking about our exes and why things went wrong. He brought up the sex issue and mentioned how they were both virgins until shortly before they got married. They had sex two times before getting married and then about once a month after marriage. My ex and I well we were not virgins. We had sex several times before getting married, but after I gave her the engagement ring she suddenly did not want to have sex. Once we did get married we also only had sex about once a month. Both my friend and I had to initiate to get any action. Personally I got fed up with initiating and became celibate. My friend just found other women and cheated on his wife.

He also told me that his wife would say things like "are you done yet". How romantic and sensual. This got me to the whole Christianity makes sex evil. He is a christian and he knows I am an atheist. I pointed out that within Christianity, the idea is that sex is evil and even when one is married it is hard to break that and it suddenly be good. He actually agreed with me there. He also said he didn't think sex was supposed to be evil according to the Bible. I didn't really push the point with him.

I just thought it was an interesting conversation. There was of course more to it than this but this is the highlights. I am glad I have a good friend that I can discuss things like this with without judgment. This is how friendship should be.