Young Reflections and Recollections

I was speaking to my son's father through e-mail and Skype. He is blind also and of Puerto Rican background. He felt as if my parents were not supportive of him, and i have to trust his assessment of our twenties. He went from atheist, I think to exploring other ways of thinking including Christianity and back to atheism. He must have gone through a lot of reflecting. I remember a Rabbi saying here in Anchorage in the 1990's how Jews and Christians see the world differently. It's all perspective, and it's better not to have one. Tomorrow is High Holidays, and I was invited to dinner before services tomorrow night. I just think that Christians and Jews do not know enough about each other, as I mentioned before. After all, Christians are the dominant cultural group, so they think of themselves as "normal." That is why people get offended and think I am making a slap at Protestants, and of course one cannot generalize. There are patterns though that are learned and that are not anyone's fault, and by no means do we need to become defensive. I want us all to bring these things out into the open, because white people and especially Protestants are quieter, and not as emotionally expressive (in my opinion) whereas Italians and Jews, for the most part, are more effusive and expressive, passionate etc. This is especially true for raised middle-class folks. That's all I think. I don't like rigidity. The older I get, the less rigid I want to be, and the more flexible and fluidic I want to become. I understand defensiveness and being offended, but my ideas are strange and different and anomalous and I have not wanted to bludgeon anyone. They come from a long period of experience and expression and working with many types of people. It was just interesting that , as I started this post out, that my son's dad and I had different recollections and memories of our European trip. How interesting what we feel is important to us, and what we believe and how we catalog things in our minds. Koraling Lynne