Thanksgiving dinner was quite nice. Almost the whole family came out. The food was good and all of that jazz, everyone asked where Ross was, and there was lots of joking around.

Though, I got into a small tiff with a very opinionated aunt of mine. See, I have a cousin who is a monk. He came garbed in his garnet and yellow robes, shaved head and gentle serenity. I like the monk. He's gentle and a good listener, always has been.

My opinionated aunt called him weird. She doesn't like him. I stood up for him saying that he was not weird, only different and not a bad different either. We went back and forth for a bit before she asked me into the kitchen. I wanted ice cream and happily went with her.

She tried very hard to change my opinion and got very emotional, bringing Grandma's death into all of it. She got aggitated and teary eyed but convinced me it did not. She genuinely seemed to think the monk had bad intentions by visiting Grandma everyday while she was dying, that his motive was just to watch someone die.

I thought that was a little extreme. He's a very sensitive person and likely just wanted to bear witness and since he had the time to spare he popped over a lot.

There were other things that the aunt said, other greivences, but none that really indicated anything sinister to me. I stopped fighting her and eventually just settled into, "You have every right to feel how you feel. We all do." And she gave up on me, "You just don't get it." and left the conversation. I took my ice cream sundae back into the living room and ate it.

I don't think it's right to have that kind of harsh judgement on a family member. Not one that's never meant anyone any harm. She really held it against him that he's "weird" and said, "We're Catholic." Though, she doesn't attend church, and anyway I don't see that as a reason to begrudge someone's Buddhist beliefs or life anyhow. So what if he wears a robe? It makes him happy. There is more than one right way to live in this world.

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