I was just on the phone with my Aunt Linda, the one in Pennsylvania. She was telling me about how much she loves the LOTR movies (she's been under a rock and didn't see them until recently). We got to talking and I was telling her about the Inklings and how Tolkien and C.S. Lewis used to hang out. Well, long story short, she mentioned how she's not sure she's going to let her 7 year old, Julia, read The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe yet. "I'm very careful about witches," she said. "I'll let her read them when she's a bit older, but I don't want to expose her to unknowing evil right now."
It's times like this that it's really hard to take steps forward about my faith with the rest of my family. I just didn't have the mental energy to get into a discussion about it. Yes, the Witch in that book is evil, but no more so than any other villain in any Disney movie. It's just the stigma of the word 'witch' in pop culture that makes it hard for me to help them distinguish the line between fiction and reality. I want them to see that 'witch' does not equal 'doer of evil' in the real world, nor do I want my family to think that I'm under the thrall of some 'unknowing evil.'
I love my aunt and I know that she loves me. She's a cool lady, and much more open-minded than most of my family. But I want to be able to be completely honest with her, and her Roman Catholicism (like my father being Southern Baptist) has me stuck taking these itty bitty tiny baby steps. I know, in the end, it's much better than simply proclaiming, "Look at me, I'm a witch!" because I want her to understand me, even if she doesn't share my views. But sometimes it's hard because I see how long it is that I really have to go. I look forward to the time that I can wear my pentacle at family functions with my father's side and not feel like I'm hiding something.
It's times like this that it's really hard to take steps forward about my faith with the rest of my family. I just didn't have the mental energy to get into a discussion about it. Yes, the Witch in that book is evil, but no more so than any other villain in any Disney movie. It's just the stigma of the word 'witch' in pop culture that makes it hard for me to help them distinguish the line between fiction and reality. I want them to see that 'witch' does not equal 'doer of evil' in the real world, nor do I want my family to think that I'm under the thrall of some 'unknowing evil.'
I love my aunt and I know that she loves me. She's a cool lady, and much more open-minded than most of my family. But I want to be able to be completely honest with her, and her Roman Catholicism (like my father being Southern Baptist) has me stuck taking these itty bitty tiny baby steps. I know, in the end, it's much better than simply proclaiming, "Look at me, I'm a witch!" because I want her to understand me, even if she doesn't share my views. But sometimes it's hard because I see how long it is that I really have to go. I look forward to the time that I can wear my pentacle at family functions with my father's side and not feel like I'm hiding something.