Religion

The whole shooting thing in Paris reminded me of the whole religion issue. I didn't grow up religious, even though my parents were supposedly Lutherans even though we didn't ever go to church. In America, church is important for a lot of people. My husband, Richard, and I didn't realize it at first but we were trying to fit in and find our place in the year after we moved to Arlington, Virginia and people would sometimes ask us what church we belonged to.

Our search for a church for us is a story I talk about more in my book, but the quick version is that we didn't want to go to the nondenominational Church that was closest to us because I couldn't figure out what kind of Church they were. I did like that you could go for free because nobody forced you to put money in the collection basket. At one point, we tried going to the local Jewish church because I remember that my boyfriend, Benjamin, from when I was an au pair in Los Angeles was really nice. The first time we went, which was some Sunday, they were closed, which was actually pretty annoying. The next day I called up and asked if we could join, at least temporarily to see if we liked it. The guy asked us if we were Jewish and I said, not yet but maybe we would be if we liked it. He said I was Mischugge, which was offensive. He didn't know that I speak German. You don't usually think of religious people telling people they are Mischugge. Why would he even use that word? It could have been worse. He could have called me a Dummkopf and I would have been just as surprised. I asked him can I become Jewish and he said, "You can't," so I hung up.

Despite what they guy said to me, I do feel sorry for the people killed at the Jewish supermarket in Paris. They were just trying to do their Jewish shopping and didn't go out thinking that they were going to be taken hostage and killed by some crazy gunman.