It sounds like you’ve picked a wonderful husband! I like that his thanksgiving is a reminder of the dependencies even in something as simple as a meal at home.

I read your Skeptic’s Prayer (or what I could—it seemed that the end of the article was missing) from your link to Sunstone. I may just have to add Sunstone to my list of daily reads. In short, I found the piece moving & beautiful.

(the rest of this is in response, more to your essay, than to your post…sorry)

In long,
I immediately responded to your comment that prayer is a hard habit to break. Although I no longer really consider myself religious, I still find myself praying; or feeling the need for prayer. My husband, who has never been religious, taught me a beautiful practice: before each meal, once everything’s been placed & we’re about to dig in, we hold hands with everyone seated there & give thanks where it is due: to the cooks, the table-setters, the guests for their presence. I find this acknowledgement before breaking bread (or, more often, pasta) fills a space that my lack-of-prayer left.
In addition, your comment on the Japanese language’s careful selection of pronouns and verb endings resonated. I barely speak Japanese, but am bilingual with German. It seems to me that the English language is poorer for its loss of the familiar “thou” (and with it, the formal “you”) distinction. In German prayers, the opposite (to what I understood you to say happens in Japanese) happens: the Divine is familiar. When you speak to the Divine, you say “Thou”, as Jesus said, “Daddy” (Abba) rather than “Father”. While I see arguments for both usages, I like the feeling that the Divine is so accessable. I don’t have to use the formal & flowery speech I would use with an elder, better, or stranger; the Divine is my Friend, the Divine meets me on my level since it is impossible that I could raise myself to meet the Divine.
Finally (I promise), I really like the fact that you pray over IM. Most of my prayers are (& have always been) sub-vocal. I’ve never really explored why, but it occurs to me that I’ve felt the Divine could hear me, whether I said anything or not: knowledge of the deepest heart of me & all that. But prayer is not always a private thing & I love that you & your wife pray together: a joint act of submission (islam) to the Divine. Clearly, the Divine is just as technosavvy as those who pray

Okay, I lied, one final comment/question: my husband & I have been driving cross-country on I-80 (through SLC and then into other Mormon areas) and learning about the Mormon emmigration. All these reminders of Mormons make me think of the people I know (if I can claim that I “know” you) who are Mormon. Knowing now that your conversion happened around the same time (life-span-wise) as my deconversion, I’m curious what drew you to the Mormon faith.

Please email me every time you release an episode, or tell me if/when you’re in iTunes!!!

Also, have you ever listend to “Left, Right and Center” or “Pardon the Interruption (PTI)?”?

I think it would be super cool to do a multi-person, talk show format around religion, pop culture, current events, etc.

Let me know if you’re interested.