Thread by @FW_Medieval

I have an lowkey inappropriate Good Friday story (it's really just one line, but it will stick with you) which is embedded in a very pure such catholic wow kinda story so I'm deeply torn whether I should tell it

okay. I grew up very catholic in a very catholic family st anthony, st christopher, rosaries on car trips, no tv on good friday etc. I'm hard wired & in high school even came to love it. Considered priesthood. Underlays my a certain element of my draw to medieval studies

prelim funny: My daughter has grown up with none of this. Wife & I had similar upbringings, but daughter has no religion. +

When she visited the catherdral in FW for the first time ever (on a tourist in your own hometown day) she looked at the Stations of the Cross & said "Hey look: real life memes"

BUT! I grew up knowing all about the stations of the cross. It & good friday service were a given. No tv all day. "Spend all day in church" etc

about high school time, we started attending an outdoor stations of the cross where at a cemetery on Long Island where my parents' parents are all buried. I believe I have a plot awaiting me if I want it. the name of the cemetery is the **Holy Rood**

foreshadowing people! pre-ordained OE scholar

Oh, me & my inappropriate siblings used to call it the "How Rude" :/

Huge cemetery; the stations are throughout & the faithful would process to each of them. Medieval af. Except someone had a tape player scratchily playing chant between stations. the spirit was willing but the technology was not so great

whichever of my siblings wanted to attend would come with my mom. By high school I was always down. & my aunt Bet would always come. if you don;t know aunt Bet, I'm happy to introduce you. She was the most important woman in my life medievalfleming.wordpress.com/2017/11/21/aun…

I took pride in pushing her wheelchair throughout the service as I took pride in taking her to church pretty regularly once I had a licence. The cemetery was imperfectly paved, so i liked to imagine I was engaged in some pretty noble service moving her around

plus I loved her & loved the whole ceremony & processing & everything about it. there is no better day to be catholic than good friday imho.

but one year my older brother came along. He is the literal worst.

lacrosse player, frat boy, drop out. We were & are very different. But also very special kinda best friends. We roofed together with my dad & he was great at it & i sucked, but he always looked out for me

plus we survived by making jokes about everything & anything. We have inside jokes that are 30 years old. We can say one word to each other and crack each other up. But he was not ever religious at all. So I really dont know why he came

changed the vibe you know when your partner in crime was around.. He must have been home from college (spring break). But he would point out absurdity of everything abt this stations of the cross: the bad mic the priest was using; the warbley music

but I had a duty to attend to: push aunt bet like a Christian solider.

punchline(?) is coming up & it's not even good.

we all had the little booklet to follow along with

so we knew the responses & when to kneel & stand & genuflect*
(hey did you know non-catholic kids don;t know this word!?!?!!

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We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

anyway we had made it all the way through, basically, with my brother causing me to stifle laughter throughout & my mom shooting us dirty looks the entire time [oh! which reminds me once me & him & my older sister when to church on out own when we like 7, 9, 11 or somthing+

{proud big kid moment. We sat in the front row on the st joseph side {oh yeah, my childhood church was St Aidan's ftw} & we goofed & giggled like the whole time. during communion a woman we did not know received then came over to us & told us our behavior was atrocious+

[it was terrifying. we thought our parents would somehow find out. we bring out the worst in each other]
which takes me back to the Holy Rood. *Anything* can be funny in the right context. with the right audience. with the write giggly mindset. & my brother had gotten me into it

but we had made it to the end. My brother was even acting devote like. Holding his little booklet & following along like everyone else. But then he leaned over & just pointed to the the name of the last station

"Jesus is Laid in the Tomb"

that's it. it's objectively not funny. but you know.

without saying a word he permanently altered my experience of the stations of the cross. Forever.

I still have all my pure & devote & very catholic feelings abt the stations of the cross. I still have deep emotional & spiritual connects to my Aunt Bet, who is now buried in the Holy Rood next to her mom my mom-mom

but I can't ever think about Good Friday without also thinking of him. Which is also good & great.

actually the Beavis & Butthead stupidity of the comment only has any meaning whatsoever because of our upbringing right? Like if we didn't believe, it would not be memorable at all. Like my daughter was not actually joking when she compared the stations to memes

anyway, I kind of love Good Friday.

thanks for listening 📿