The second surprise that he had was that a relative of his had recently replaced all the windows in her house, and was going to get rid of the old ones, and didn't know what she would do with them.
Most of the windows in the foreclosure house I bought need replacing, and this will save quite a bit of money at a time when finances are already stretched. I bought a gift card for a local restaurant chain that is very well known for good pasta and fried chicken that I will give him when I see him again. I believe in giving credit where credit is due, but apparently my family doesn't. Though they were glad for the gift, and thanked the real estate again, for them it's all about praising god over and over and over, and counting it as a small miracle.
It's kind of tiring to hear, but oh well....
I say thank those here on earth who do good things, and do all we can to make this world a better place for everyone, but that's just my opinion. ;)
Anyway, I still will be rather busy, even though I won't be out of state for vacation, and I don't think I will be posting more than once or twice a week to the blog for a while, until everything settles down. Not only will the house take some time, but I will have to plan for living post-fundamentalism.
Once I move in the house, I will have to get in contact with a psychiatrist, get medication for the depression, and find out once and for all if my strange mind is due to just an odd personality, or some form of autism or OCD (which I feel is more likely with each passing day).
Then there's the matter of rebuilding social networks in person. Online support is great, and I'm grateful for the people who have stood behind me and encouraged me, but that only goes so far. I'll see who is still standing around me in my personal life when I finally come out as agnostic. That will be a wild ride.
Speaking of my past, I have a guest post up right now at the blog Defeating the Dragons, and if you haven't already read it, check out the Q&A interview I had last week with Samantha Field, the author of the blog Defeating the Dragons. She talks about her upbringing in the Independent Fundamental Baptist organization, her life now, and thoughts on life and why some former fundamentalists stay in Christianity, and why some people leave.
Congratulations on the new house.
ReplyDeleteGood luck while you build up those much needed networks of friends. I hope they are encouraging and helpful when they find out about your agnosticism. If they are real friends I am sure they will be.
Yeah, i probably should be checking out atheist groups first thing, and start attending their events.
DeleteGlad to hear you're moving in soon to your own house. I always hated paying rent.
ReplyDeleteBe mindful of finding a psychiatrist. My wife and I were in couples therapy for, well, quite a long time. The therapist we used was a PhD (we are both in the mental health fields so we needed someone who could keep up with us analyzing each other during marriage therapy), graduated from NYU, and someone who we personally respected. (I'm probably repeating myself here.)
Psychiatrists, I have found, typically want to rush into medicating without doing much talking. Buying mental health services is similar to anything else, buyer beware.
The good news is that most of the therapeutic outcome really does depend on the person who is in therapy and not the therapist.
Good advice, and yes, I do know that psychiatrists aren't like what people. The common image of someone laying on couch, talking things over for an hour, well that's fiction.
DeleteMost do only want to prescribe medications and move on.
So happy for you. Yes, it will be the real test on who is your real friends. I still can't pin it down on why people care so much about what we believe. I get it that you're an agnostic, but people give me the same dirty looks and I'm not one. I dunno, but people are just weird.
ReplyDelete