My grandparents did that. They would save a couple days worth of scraps, dig a hole near the garden or between rows, and bury it. There was never any significant composting effort.

In my area, it is a mix of both. Before dh and so left Christianity the church we attend was an eclectic mix of people who did know the church doctrine, people who didn't, some who knew bits and pieces, and some who truly didn't care. The church was convenient to their home, and they liked the music and weren't at all worried about doctrine. Now that said, with that last group of folks, they didn't leave their children for classes nor did they attend bible studies or adult classes. They just came on Sunday mornings and for an occasional social event like the New Years Eve board game night.

In my county of approximately 52,000 people there are 57 churches. It is estimated that only 20% of the population attends church with any regularity so that is roughly 10,400 attendees which divided by is roughly 182 persons per church, except that it isn't evenly spread like that. According to the ministerial association, there are 13 churches in danger of closing due to low attendance and financial issues. So some churches are topping 200 in attendance. Actually, one or two of the Missouri Synod Lutheran churches top 300 per Sunday. This area was settled by German immigrants in the 1850's, and Lutherans here have K-8 schools which are very good, and hand down their faith fairly efficiently from generation to generation. As a matter of fact, my generation was the first to be taught English before 3rd grade. Now it is the opposite, they are taught in English but have German language instruction from 6th-8th grades when the schools can find German speaking teachers. The problem for these churches though is that apart from the Lutheran tradition, most off the churches have a very high number of retirees and elderly, and a low number of younger folks. The younger generations are not be retained. However, this area has low employment options for the younger generations so with each census there are more and more losses of young people. So it isn't necessarily the churches' faults. It is not uncommon to see someone praying over a meal when out and about. There is a prayer day on the courthouse lawn each year. The local newspapers have church news sections, and church goers are very vocal at school board and county commissioner meetings which is their right. Normally not an issue. But when a lot of churches fell for "faith not fear", and conspiracy theories, "covid is a hoax", " covid is flu", and a lot of notions about religious rights being trampled, that is when there was an issue with very angry mob mentality about influencing public school policy. Some are now also into banning books or pressuring the library to ban all kinds of books. There is as a general rule a deference towards protestant Christianity here in a very discriminatory way towards non Christians and Catholics. We were heavily criticized by numerous folks in the community for not opening our 4H club meetings with prayer. Uhm...secular organization, sponsored by secular university taking taxpayer funds. NOT appropriate! Now all of that said, the vast majority of the population do not attend church much at all, if at all. As for doctrine, I rarely hear doctrinal talk. There is a good bit of lifestyle talk, this family doesn't believe in mixed swimming, that one does, this one doesn't believe in vaccines, that one does, this one doesn't believe in women wearing pants, that one does, etc. You don't hear people discussing the doctrinal differences between churches.

A second home is our preferred option. We would like to sell our house plus the mothers' homes, and combine the funds to get a cottage on the lake. They are amenable to that in the future. That way we have our northern, Great Lakes escape from the heat of Alabama in the summer. Ideally. We will see what happens. Mark has four years and few months before he can consider retiring. I would be in better shape if I had been able to make my February run to the southern house. But between medical emergencies with my mother in law, and breaking my finger, and hitting a deer with one of our cars, that didn't happen, and March is not looking promising in that regard. Frolicking the front yard at 65 degrees, and working on raised beds and garden containers with Dd would be a balm to my soul.

I am all ears on this. I am not well versed in anything related to composting.

My eyes rolled hard, they really really did!

I don't think that is silly. We have former friends and some members of extended family who showed us who they really are, and we believe them. Those relationships will never be resumed unless they actually approach us from a place of deep apology and remorse. Given what they post on social media, I don't think this will be possible. I am hoping when we move, we will get to restart our lives, and meet new people with whom we don't have this history.

Same here. Fresh produce had also been quite low quality too.

I feel like the best approach in this is to discuss what is best for the dog. Poor doggie cannot consent to the outcome, it simply happens to him. Therefore as owners, we have a responsibility to the vulnerable animal to do the best we can for that fur baby within our means. The soul that requires the most consideration her is doggie.

You are doing great!

In our area there are very very few progressive churches so I can't speak to much except to say the two that we do have, have been very covid conscious and have not advertised any nationalist ideas that I can see. On the other hand, the IFB church has actually had QAnon bites on their marquee. So that has been rather startling and vexing as well.

We have been having a LOT of discussions as a family pod, my mom and mother in law, our adult kids, son in law, and grandsons. Mother in law and eldest grandson are the two that need the most protection. Mother in law did not, according to her doctor who ordered antibody/titer/whatever it is tests, produce much immunity even after one JNJ and two Moderna. Grandson is vaxed with Pfizer. We are now two years in with strict family protocols and very responsible behavior. But how long can we keep it up and not have some mental health/emotional issues? At some point there is a quality of life issue that gets severe. Dd has found a secular homeschool group that is meeting outside for all kinds of play dates and field trips. They require that everyone masks, no exceptions. Dd has trained our two year old grandson to wear his mask like a little champ. She also found swim lessons for the boys at an aquatic center that still requires masks in the dressing areas and bathrooms (obviously not in the showers), and is still limiting the size of classes to reduce viral load, and the instructor is covid conscience and calls out parents who are not. Failure to cooperate means bye bye lessons. We all talked about it, and felt that the grandsons really need this, and Dd needs to be able to look forward to visiting with other moms her age. As much as we want to protect my 85 year old MIL and do not want to be the reason she dies or a source of community spread which hurts or kills someone else, we are slowly reaching a place where we are so mentally worn out that we need a reprieve. If we can just breathe a little, de-stress a little, have some human contact outside our pod, then if it is prudent to lockdown again, we will be in a better position to weather that storm. We are buying tickets to an outdoor concert with the DSO in June. We will take our mothers and they will mask. We will probably get a lot of nasty glares and comments about the masks because that is how Michiganders on this side of the state are acting these days. But we will socially distance on the lawn, and ignore it so that they can enjoy the event. We are planning socially distanced vacations with KN95's inside except once we enter our hotel rooms, and mostly only outdoor activities, picnics and take-out, no inside dining. But if we are hanging out in Custer State Park and another family comes up to talk, we have decided not to shrink away and just hope between outdoors, vaxed and boosters, we can allow a little interaction. If a crowd forms, we will distance or leave. Ds's college requires KN95's and provided them for students. The only places they can take their masks off is when in their dorm rooms/quad bathrooms, and cafeteria. Cases have been crazy low so I do feel the masks, the high quality masks, were the key. I suspect if every state had been serious about mask mandates from the beginning and kept those in place, providing the good masks as soon as mass production allowed, and did not let up on the mandates, and then rigorously contact traced and the country actually cooperated, we would not be approaching a million dead and millions with long covid, nor HCW's leaving their profession in droves, and bringing hospitals and EMS to their knees. But no one did, and now we face the future of this being a constant, dangerous problem for years to come as this thing just keeps mutating and people scream "freedum". That means everyone is faced with the consequences, and of course how to move forward individually for each household because there simply is going to be no coordinated plan, no national effort, and there isn't going to be any " rowing together". I have been a champion of lock down and responsible behavior, but I am having a hard time right now getting myself through this disgusting awful winter, waiting for spring and being able to be outside so much more. I am meeting a former coworker for coffee and GF scones on Tuesday afternoon at a local coffee shop. We are not going to eat inside, but they do not have curbside pick up so we will wear masks, go inside and get it, and then will be sitting in my car which we will park at the river, nature preserve and watch the birds come an go. She is not vaxed, but had covid 40 days ago, and is otherwise covid conscious and respectful of others. So I am just going to hope for the best. I feel a bit like a failure after two years of being so strong during hunker down. However, I also need this a lot. And I just got my finger out of the splint and can't play the piano which is a primary outlet for my emotions.

I am so sorry. Combined with housing prices, it is hard on young people who aren't established yet. I wad also just reading that the settlement against Sallie Mae/Navient for their predatory and fraudulent loan practices for now defunct colleges/institutes only canceled the balances for those in arrears. Students who worked hard to keep up with payments no matter how hard that was, got nothing! I couldn't believe it. Way to punish young adults for doing what was right, and many of them were living in their cars and rationing food in order to make those payments. One more massive failure of our system to give a crap about the next generation.

I came back today to look at him because I needed a pick me up! He warms my heart.

I think we all need to be careful about mentioning specific politicians or this discussion will get shut down for being political. We need to focus more on how specific issues regardless of whether they have a political basis or not have caused a crisis in faith, potentially another large exodus of folks from organized Christianity, etc. Nationalism is definitely a problem for the church and it can manifest itself in a lot of ways and have a variety of causes. But, I think what we can talk about is the shift for a long time away from traditional, foundational beliefs and practice that may have kept Christianity as a general whole from allowing extremism and lack of care and concern for neighbors to seep into the life of faith. I think that the postmodern emphasis on the individual in worship, emotionalism and being all about how "I" feel in worship, how god makes "me feel", and the church needs to be about " me" may be one issue. The rock concert, the entertainment, the Hollywood feel of modern church life is something I think may have had a hand in leading to this. A life of faith, originally as N.T. concept was a life of community and concern for what was best for everyone as a whole, for neighbors, for wider community. I think that has been lost. Certainly Do Unto Others and Love Your Neighbor seems to have been back burnered, and individual liberty elevated. I think in a country that is obsessed with individual rights at the expense of the whole, this allows nationalism to invade the church when not corrected by sound, theological teaching, and lead by example from church leadership. But, my deconversion was complete before the pandemic so I could be completely wrong about that, and you all are welcome to illuminate where I have gone wrong in that theory.

Agreed! I mean I guess I could say of the kids in Flint, Michigan with global delays, chronic illness, learning disabilities, and trauma that it's just fine, at least they had water. I think it is entirely possible to have compassion for people in tough circumstances or acknowledge flaws in our systems and society without conflating it with "if it isn't as bad as WWII, it isn't worth noting or discussing" kinds of extremism. No one here was even hinting that there is nationwide starvation or anything of that nature. That doesn't mean we shouldn't discuss the systems breaks that have been brought to focus/highlighted by the pandemic. And it is disingenuous to suggest that growing your own food is the answer for wide swaths of people to lower grocery bills given how many people do not live with access to yard/soil/gardening space, and HOA's, landlords, and township zoning prevents many from having more than a back porch tomato plant in a pot, and in some cases, not even that. My son's landlord in Kalamazoo allows tenants three pots 12" or less in diameter per balcony, and their balcony is small and faces north. One of his roommates lives on $25 a week for food. But I guess according to some, if he doesn't drop down dead of starvation, it is a non issue.

I agree. They love you Dmmelter and do not want to lose their music teacher. This is not mindset that would take off nation wide.

I want to make it clear that my original post was about churches in my area, my region. I was not speaking in general about others. It wad my observation of churches within my orbit which is a three county, rural area.

I am sorry, Dawn! Many, many hugs.

😂😂😂

If you wanted to do a sandwich but be different, a food bread brushed with garlic infused olive oil and toasted with sun dried tomatoes and diced red pepper might be very nice. I do think the sweet potato wrap sounds yummy.

I understand this completely. And your last part especially. I do believe that the pandemic has brought to the forefront very specific brokenness in more than just our economic or political system, but also in so many systems in our culture and religious systems have not been immune. Sweeping the problems under the rug and maintaining the status quo just isn't going to work any longer. Things will get worse if action is not taken, however, no one wants to take action so I predict worse. The question is, "How much worse?" When huge, foundational shake ups occurred in Europe, there were countries like France who became almost entirely secular with no sign of a life of faith within its borders. The number of "nones" grows with each census to the place that it can't be ignored anymore. What does that say for the future and would disaffiliation from politics be enough to reverse the trend? I have relatives on both side of the divide, and with an extended family who has largely been Christian and not at odds until this, I wonder if they will ever recover. For us, we do have some relationships that have ended permanently. When someone calls my grandson with a heart condition "expendable because freedom", it isn't something I can just get over. My mom would like to see some reconciliation in her lifetime (she is 78 and her health is stable but not great).

These are just terrible groaners! 😁

One of the things I have noticed locally is when looking at photos on Facebook of churches, those that have an American flag flying on the property or on a stand in the sanctuary seem to be the ones who are vocally against covid protocols and behaving in irresponsible ways. Those that do not have a flag seem to be more covid conscious. I think that says something powerful. I was, until September 2022, on a list of substitute pianist/keyboardists for numerous churches in the area. UMCs, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopal, Wesleyan, Free Methodist, Church of Christ, and a couple of Independents. Though deconverted from the Christian faith, I still love hymns and meditations, psalms, and other aspects so it was nice to continue playing on call. But, when some of the former covid conscious ones gave up after summer, I wasn't willing to continue. And to be fair to worship planners, since I would not play when cases were high, they had big chance of "No" when they called which was discouraging for them. So I ended it. My hope, my big hope, is when we move to the Huntsville area, the UU which seems to be a super conscientious and loving congregation with a choir might be looking for an accompanist. Ultimately what I see on social media is that covid conscious folks feel very disenfranchised here by their churches these days. Some have become anti hierarchy due to leadership behavior and are leaving organized Christianity all together, some are commuting outside the area to churches where they feel comfortable, some are forming simple worship groups who meet masked and distanced with a strict do not come sick policy and limiting their numbers in order to have Bible study, prayer, and recorded or instrumental only hymns. According to a local survey of the county ministerial committee, church attendance in person and online has dropped nearly 50% in 2022. It is very hard to say if it will come back up. There are numerous smaller churches reported to be in deep trouble and likely to close. So my area as a general whole seems to mirror the issues in the article.

Cats. They just can.not.be.trusted.