12.01.2005

scary story and other stuff

So the good news first and then the scary stuff. I got accepted to present at my very first academic conference. I'll be going to the Asian Pacific American Graduate Students Organization conference at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in March 2006. I've never been to Illinois and I actually applied to that school's Communication Research program so I'm excited. Yay!

So I was IMing with my dad last night about hockey and somehow we got to gossiping about family because that is all we talk about being an uptight non-communicative Chinese family and all. I found out that my cousins, aunt, and uncle on my mom's side who lived in Willowdale, Ontario lived many years in a house that was haunted. They moved out just within the last few years or something. Like each of them had seen the same damn ghost on several occasions and got used to it. How the hell do you get used to that shit and continue living there? It seems like everyone in my family has seen crap like this. It's kind of disturbing. OK I don't want to talk about it anymore because I get scared typing about it. But it's just so fascinating. I admit sometimes I feel guilty about trashing religion because I believe in ghosts but haven't got the God(s) stuff figured out. I left the Catholic Church behind after our priest threatened we'd go to hell for missing mass (dammit I had gymnastics meets on Sundays sometimes, jeez), told us that gay people have a disorder, told us that girls can't serve as altar girls and then explained that only men could be priests (and could thus be closer to God than could women). Even at age 12 I figured that this was rather sexist, homophobic and generally extreme (duh). While religion provides guidelines for being nice to other folks and all that, it also spawns hate, causes wars, prevents people from thinking independently, and divides families (and countries). I've always figured you can make your own rules for being good to yourself and people around you without having to worship someone/something and follow a bunch of arbitrary rules and archaic customs. I believe in a higher power but what form s/he takes I don't know. All I know is my future kids will not be forced to go to weekly mass and catechism. A little independent learning about Buddhist philosophies maybe. But that's it man.

8 comments:

Eunice said...

I am with you on the religious perspective. You just defined exactly how I feel. I don't know about ghosts though. My mom is convinced they have a poltergiest living in their house, but I just don't buy it. None of us kids ever saw it when we lived there.

James said...

I'm sure you get used to seeing ghosts. It's like the family dog after a while. "Hey, did you hear the ghost again last night?" "Yeah, I had to tell him to shut up cause he was howling all night long"
:)

S said...

The funny thing is that when you're younger, you hear all the stories from somebody's cousin's aunt's friend. Then as you get older, the degrees of separation start to drop until you're sitting there talking to one of your close friends detailing the time that he looked into the mirror and saw himself 40 years older with gray hair and wrinkled, saggy skin. It's hard to discount it - sure, there's the "I don't believe it until I see it" but then you stop and think about it for a second and realize that maybe you *don't* want to be seeing any of it at all.

Tashiwa said...

I totally agree with you on religion, right down to the Buddism bit, and plan to do the same with my kids. That's what my "hippie" parents did and I turned out ok.

As a big watcher of horror movies, I think I'd be okay with ghosts as long as I stay in North America. I can't deal with those disruptive korean ones though. They seem to have too much reach into our realm.

Anonymous said...

family didn't live on maxome ave by any chance? i was just browsing through blogs and read yours...i used to live in willowdale in a haunted house. it was almost like we would always be lured into hanging out in the basement. i saw a ghost down there and so did my mom. we had a lot of bad luck when we were living there.

Syndromes said...

Don't get me started on religion... ;)

Congrats on the academic conference though :D I wonder why they spelled it Champaign versus Champagne? *ponder*

And as for ho-key, I will never forget the excitement within when I heard the Canucks had Alexander Mogilny and Pavel Bure on the same line... Ahh such sweet memories. But their old uni's were much better than what they have now :P

Fumbling said...

anonymous, that is fucking scary. I don't know. I'll ask my parents and repost here.

egan said...

Demi Moore?

Hey, I love your take on religion and what it breeds. I am not at all religious and happen to notice that most that aren't religious tend to be of a higher moral fiber. I have no idea what the fuck that "higher moral fiber" really means, but I think you catch my drift. I don't need 10 commandments to tell me what's right and wrong. It should be pretty clear that killing is a bad thing. Okay, nuff said. Have a good weekend Van.