The Pagan Heart
Crossroads of the Pagani

July-August 2005 Issue
   

Inside the Pagan Mind - Personal Pagan Responsibility
By Christine

I was at the bookshop the other day with some friends. One headed off to look at the latest fiction while the other made a beeline for the parenting section. As we perused the titles, he commented that there didn't seem to be many available for "people like me". IE Pagan parents.... He's right. There's material for Jewish, Moslem, and Christian parents, even Atheist...but not an awful lot sitting on the shelves dispensing advice from toilet training through to diet and religion.

It's funny, 'cause we're a minority, but surely there's still a need among us for quality guides on raising kids? How about some of the other standard genres? Simple kids books for example?

This got me to thinking about life in general - it's amazing what a latte and a friend can do when you've escaped your own kids for a few hours! Where are the Pagan coffee houses, dance and activity clubs, educational centers, spiritual retreats, and so on? Few and very far between - and in some areas completely non-existant. Yet when I go online, there are Pagans everywhere.

Why is it this minority has so little while other minorities are so organized and together and visible...organized. Oops, forgot about that. Not really our strong point now, is it? For a group so big on personal responsibility we seem remarkably eager to sit back and wait for someone else to get the job done. I want good quality Pagan kids activity books, so I'm actually involved in getting some written - hopefully they will be good quality, but either way, I got active. I even spoke with the local bookshop about an alternative religion reading group. So far we have a Buddhist, some ecclectic Pagans, and a "fallen" Catholic signed up. Our first book is "Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life" and we're having some interesting discussions about it.

It's something most other religions are far ahead of us in - getting active within the community. Even the different denominations will unite to achieve something like a community hall or charity drive. I don't want to be them, but I do want to emulate some of their better qualities. Why is it so anti-Pagan to get active, take responsibility, and become involved? But it must be - after all we are all just sitting around waiting for someone else to do the work so we can benefit from it.

Well, I don't want to sit around. I want to take hold of my life and be visible. I may not be ready to wear a pentacle to work, but I can at least be out there talking about some of my more general beliefs, working to get Paganism seen as more mainstream.

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