heaven on their minds...

this morning i talked to my little sister. she's currently going through a period where she doesn't know how to situate herself with respect to catholicism and church and all that fun stuff. my dad, whom i love dearly, is a pretty staunch believer in the church (should i have capitalized that?), and his house rules are that if you're sleeping under his roof, you go to mass on sunday. well, caitlin isn't so keen on following this rule these days. and my "relationship" with god/catholicism/religion notwithstanding, i'm cast in the role of be-supportive-of-both-sides, because she'll listen to me when she won't listen to my dad, but my dad would probably disown me if i didn't at least try to represent where he stands on the issue. that's not to say that i tell her she should be going to mass or else -- it means that what i say is that sometimes it's easier to do what dad asks rather than to fight with him about it. she does say she believes in a higher power. so, i say why can't she just use that hour of mass-time to think about that? i dunno... i know her struggle all too well. i'm just trying to be a good big sister.

anyway, she goes to a catholic high school (the same one that i attended way back when), and every wednesday morning at 9:00 there's an all-school mass. and since this is the church season of lent, they have stations of the cross. when she mentioned this, i immediately got a mad mad mad craving to watch a certain DVD in my movie collection. you see, the literature nerd in me, that part of me that adores greek tragedy and allegory, fucking loves the story of the passion! it's really brilliant -- full of fragility, heartache, grief, sacrifice, suffering, catharsis! say what you will about its significance to christianity, but the story of the death of jesus is pretty amazing.

so, in honor of lent, currently appearing on the TV in my living room, is _jesus christ superstar_. and you better believe i'm singing every goddamn word along with those dirty hippies!