Some Assembly Required

Adopting religious beliefs can take a while, especially if you were an atheist for over thirty years...

By Steven T. Abell, July 05, 2012

You may recall hearing me say that I was an atheist for a long time, until I had to admit to myself that that wasn't quite true. How long was a long time? Over thirty years.

There was an adjustment period afterward. How long did that last? It hasn't ended yet. I often wonder what I've gotten myself into, and what to do about it. Not believing in gods is easier in many ways: there's less to make sense of, and what there is has a particular character of directness about it that is appealing. Atheistic morality has to stand on its merits, without being propped up by old stories whose veracity and present utility are easy to call into question.

And there are the people I meet these days. They wear garb. Some of them, at least, if only at certain events. These clothes range anywhere from the simply cut, simply sewed, and proudly worn tunic or dress, to the carefully researched, highly detailed, and lovingly assembled period piece, to the completely inappropriate red lycra dress with "Viking" accessories that might have looked good on a woman with a figure, or even decent on a gay man with an odd sense of style, but not on the man who was wearing it with no apparent awareness of how silly he looked. What are these people doing?

And these people give themselves strange names: complicated names full of umlauts and accents and character combinations one doesn't see in English, often beginning with hrafn or ending in ulf. Trying to say these names takes practice. The names of our gods get the treatment, too: Odin becomes Odinn becomes Odhinn. I've even seen Odhinnr. And how many Rs do you need to spell Thor? Good question. One wonders what spellings will appear next, whether in a book, or a website, or a blog somewhere. (Mis)pronunciation is another matter I won't go into today. I often have in mind a shadowy image of an Icelander laughing up his sleeve at our absurd attempts with his language.

http://www.patheos.com/Pagan/Some-Assembly-Required-Steven-Abell-07-06-2012.html

Steven Thor Abell is a storyteller, and the author of Days in Midgard: A Thousand Years On, a collection of original modern stories based on Heathen myths. He is also a member of the High Rede of The Troth.

Abell's column, "Letters from Midgard," is published on alternate Thursdays on the Pagan portal.