What day is it?

[mousme]

I have completely lost track of time due to the Wacky New Work Schedule™. I worked last Friday, then Monday, yesterday and today. I have tomorrow off, and then I'm doing the night shift all weekend again. Thank goodness I don't have a game on Sunday, because I think it might be the death of me. :P

My reputation for knowing everything at work grows unabated. Every time someone wants to know about some random topic involving general knowledge, they turn to me. It's flattering and a little intimidating: these people are depending on me to give them factual and accurate information, and even though they seem to think I know everything, nothing could be further from the truth. So it's a bit of a heavy responsibility if I don't want to fill their heads with crap.

The worst part is that every time they ask me about something, 99% of the time it happens to be a subject in which I have or have had at least a passing interest. So right now coincidence is on my side.

"Hey, mousme, do you know anything about a bomb in Halifax, or something?"

"A bomb? When? I haven't seen the news lately."

"No, like, in the past. Someone bombed the city or something?"

"Oh, you mean the Great Fire? Yeah, that was in 1917, when two ships collided in Halifax harbour, one of which was carrying munitions. Here, let me pull up the website and the Wikipedia entry so you can read up on it."

...

Yeah.

So.

Monday, somehow, I got roped into a conversation about paganism and Wicca. Now, compared to most of my friends, I am completely ignorant about both of these things. I know the broad outlines, and that's about it. For crying out loud, one of my friends runs a pagan magazine, and another has published three books on the topic. I'm not even pagan.

The scary part? The people at work, at first, didn't believe me when I told them that there were still pagans, or modern versions thereof, in today's society. The day shift guy literally said: "But I thought North America was all Christians and Jews!"

:::headdesk:::

So I explained, as gently as I could, that there were plenty of other religions to go around in North America. Like paganism, but there are lots of Muslims, people who practice Zen Buddhism, and so on.

The other girl, who does the weekend day shift (Saturday through Monday), was enthralled by what little I was able to tell her about Wicca and paganism. Thrilled beyond words. It was like a divine light had reached her from the heavens. She wanted to know all about owldaughter (aka "Your friend who writes the books about witches." *sigh* well, it's a start) and wanted to know what books to get so she could read all about it. I explained that owldaughter's books on Wicca are more advanced than your basic stuff, and told her what little I know of good beginner books (Scott Cunningham, for instance) and pointed her in the direction of Mélange Magique in the hopes that they will be able to tell her more than I can.

I've had conversations about reasonable accommodations, homosexuality and gay marriage, adoption, Greek mythology, the French Revolution, poetry, Shakespeare, what chamber music is, the English language, animal behaviourism, and now Wicca.

Help.

Comments

[sorceror.livejournal.com]

Actually, it sounds like your job is very intellectually stimulating. ^_^

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

You mean there are Christians in Canada? How is that possible? I thought you were all terra-ists because, you know can't have Canadians come here without a passport, and by extension you must all be Muslims. ;)

[toughlovemuse.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm curious. How did the Halifax Explosion come up in conversation?

I didn't think there could possibly still be people who weren't aware of the Paganism phenomenon. I don't mean in depth, but more of a "Oh, there are people out there who call themselves Witches, isn't it weird?" thing.

And I'm not surprised they're turning to you for information on everything. You know a lot about a variety of different topics, you're curious, you ask questions, and you have a broad range of things you're interested in. That's probably less common than you'd like to think.

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

They might know people call themselves witches, but not that Wicca and and Druidry and other branches of Neopaganism are considered to be religions. There are schools of Buddhism that had a hard time getting recognition as a religion here in the States because there was no deity being worshiped.

[sorceror.livejournal.com]

But there was something in the news not too long ago about Paganism becoming a recognized religion in US military cemetaries!

[toughlovemuse.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's not that it's a "recognized religion", it's that they finally allowed the Wiccan pentacle to be placed on soldiers' tombstones as a symbol of their faith. All kinds of faiths have a recognized symbol for this(I think there's even one for atheism) but for some reason the governing board that allows/disallows these things decided Wicca needed to jump through a whole bunch more hoops.

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

Pagan pentacle, please. There's a good bunch of us don't want to be lumped in with Wiccans anymore than a Roman Catholic identifies with a Baptist. I have worn one for 17 years and there's no way someone can get away with calling me a Wiccan. ;)

[toughlovemuse.livejournal.com]

I stand corrected.

Funny you should mention that actually, because I've seen many arguments that the pentacle is exclusively Wiccan and people get angry when it's used to represent Paganism as a whole.

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

It is an acceptable pagan symbol to many. Think about Christians, and you think a cross, but there's a defference between crosses and a crucifix with Jesus hanging on it. In a RC church he's up there, in a Protestant church he's risen, there's also the fish, the lamb...

Paganism, or neo-paganism is a catch-all phrase for many different religions and paths anyway. There were just many pagans petitioning for an acceptable symbol for the tombstones and it finally passed. Wiccans are just a very visible part of the whole general movement.

[toughlovemuse.livejournal.com]

Fair point. Wicca runs into a lot of the same problems when getting government sanction because it has no governing body and rituals vary greatly from group to group (and holiday to holiday, depending on how your group worships.)

I've been told that in the UK, Druidry groups get permission to do their rites by saying "Oh, we're a theatrical reenactment group". It's also a nonthreatening way to respond to a public that's curious about "What are you guys doing?" -- it's easier to explain if you think the participants are actors, rather than religious adherents.

[talyesin.livejournal.com]

Um, dear? You're smart. Live with it.

(As an aside, now you know how I feel when people ask me about comics, superheroes in particular. A little flattered, a little embarrassed... I know more than enough to know how little I know. *shrugs*

[vureoelt.livejournal.com]

it's a bit of a heavy responsibility if I don't want to fill their heads with crap.

Oh yeah, I know how that goes... it's quite vexing when I find myself worried I'm not getting the right ideas across, be it fuzziness of knowledge or communication hiccups.