More Politics?

There are a couple of times I try to avoid discussing religion and politics.

• Around people I don't know
• In this blog

Not a popular conversation topic
Photo by Glen Van Etten

The latter might seem ridiculous as this post rather puts the lie to that, but for those who know me, it makes sense. I blog relentlessly about politics (and sometimes religion) because it's an important topic to me. However, I deliberately tried to avoid topics like this in this blog because this is more of a "how to", but as I've mentioned before, my wife has pointed out to me that people will want to know why they want to move somewhere as much as they want to know how. Thus, without some discussion of culture, this blog would be rather limited. Plus, I like religion and politics, so there you go. From now on, I'll be dipping my toes into the political waters a bit more often. You've been warned.

As mentioned, I try to avoid discussion religion and politics around people I don't know simply because I don't want to offend and — unlike the computer enthusiast who assumes random stranger X is going to be fascinated by a particular bash script said enthusiast wrote — I don't assume people have my interests (sadly, this often leaves me in a position with little to say). However, lunch at my workplace is fascinating. Last I heard, we have over 90 nationalities working there and with just over 2,000 employees, that's a remarkable number. It also leads to fascinating conversations at work — well, when people of different languages don't split off to their own groups as sometimes happens. Thus, when the topic turned to Catholicism, my internal voice said "danger, Will Robinson!", but I was astonished at the response. Several people there were Catholic. All of them stated they were ashamed of their church.

I actually have more to say on this topic, but my daughter woke up and must be fed and changed and she's more important than this blog :) Thus, my discussion of Catholicism in Europe must wait for another day.