This morning we had to rush out of the house on a trip to a family reunion in another town. I had some trepidation because my parents were late signing us up and because I had reservations about doing this type of event on Thanksgiving day. I felt like this should a close family tradition. Not only that but I was worried about my truck which broke down last night and probably has a blown head gasket at least.

When we got to the town of the event we stopped at a store and my younger son threw up on himself. We had to spend time buying him some pants. This set us back about forty minutes. When we arrived at the event all was well and we were not that late.

I also have a natural aversion to these events because I am a bit uncomfortable around all of the family members that I don't know that I should know. But this was fine, we got to know people and my kids were well liked and received a lot of compliments. The location was in a beautiful park next to the miniature train station. My kids got to ride the train, see animals and fish in the river directly behind the station and they got to hit a pinata. They said that it was the best Thanksgiving ever.

I had 3 strong solicitations to drink with the group of guys that just happened to be the guys that I knew best. I noticed that those guys shared a common bond in their shared experience of getting loaded. The thought of what it would feel like to be drinking there crossed my mind. I was grateful that I didn't feel like I would like to do that. My mind thought about how much it would suck also and immediately rejected the idea. I also remember what it used to be like to feel like I needed to be part of that group that shared that experience. I was grateful that I didn't feel like that anymore also. I was also grateful to be comfortable interacting with the normal people also even though most of them were different than me in many ways.

This evening I reread Fr. Barron's article about the vampire craze. I picked up on a theme that was my experience. When I lived a pragmatic, secular life I objected to the notions of eternal life, spirituality, or the supernatural if they related to God and religion. But when it came to things like clairvoyance, esp, demonic possessions, spirits, etc. I was fascinated and much more open minded. At some point in my life I realized the incongruity and I tried to reject them. I tried to reject any belief or fascination but i could not seem to deny things like deja vu and uncanny synchronous events and the idea of spiritual guides. When I would catch myself I would blame it on having been conditioned by religion. Later it was through science fiction that I became more open minded. I read about the possibilities of alternate dimensions, energy beings, and mental telepathy. I noticed the similarities of these ideas to supernatural phenomena. This opened the door for the possibility that these could be plausible and do not require evidence because they are outside of the nature of this realm.