Connections to Confessions of a Closet Catholic

Being able to read "Confessions of a Closet Catholic" helped to solidify my choice of a final project. I accidentally read this book out of order and over spring break. I was able to see both a window and a mirror through this book. Justine's confusion was so much like mine at that age, but it was in reverse. I was the Catholic girl wanting to know more about this "Jewish-thing" I had heard about. However, Justine's journey was a bit easier than mine. My hometown provided nothing for me to experience anything about the Jewish culture other than reading it in textbooks. There were some books in our public library that I read, but looking back from this class, I think that they were trickled with negative implications and stereotypes. I do not think they stayed with me so much, but they must have impacted me somehow. Since learning about Jewish culture was only a slight interest of mine at the time, it slowly faded to near black because of all the walls I hit trying to learn more. This desire to know more was rekindled once I came to MSU though. I feel that Justine's journey into self-discovery will continue throughout her lifetime as well.

Justine's relationship with her grandparents and their identities was one that I was easily able to relate to. My mother's parents are Catholic and thus raised my mother Catholic who in turn continued the religious tradition to her children. I was born and raised Catholic and tried to hide my curiosity of other religions from my grandparents especially because I did not want them to think I was disrespecting them. My Catholic affiliation actually allowed me to be a large part of my grandfather's funeral ceremony. Of his 20 odd grandchildren, only myself and one other cousin remained active members of his church and so we were asked to assist in the ceremony. In the last year or so, I found out my grandmother was not raised Catholic but converted. This surprised me as I had never thought about that possibility before. I tried to ask her why she did this and her answer was very vague but along the lines of it felt like the right thing to do in my heart. This to me is the real life example of Justine's journey. I also connected to the physical representations of identity, namely the necklaces in this story. I have a cross necklace that I wear often because my grandfather gave it to me and it not only connects me to my religion but to him, much like Bubbe's star did for Justine.

Thinking about these necklaces made me question how much of one's identity should be displayed and in what ways. There are always those comments about how much you can tell about a person by looking at their bathroom or something, but how true is it? How much does wearing a cross or a Star of David really indicate about a person? Perhaps that person just likes the way it looks on them and has no identifying stakes laid into it. I have not fully processed these ideas, but am interested to know what others think.