Life. It’s Weird Like That.

My husband Sean was raised in a religious home, so I think sometimes I can forget how different our upbringings really were. This evening I was talking to Sean about the movie Frozen, which come to find out is the top grossing animated film of all time. I reminded Sean of his skepticism on seeing a commercial last fall promoting Frozen as this generation’s Lion King. Sean laughed and admitted that his skepticism had been misplaced—but then he went on.

“Did you know Lion King was the first movie I saw in theaters?” Sean asked me.

“I . . . saw Lion King while I was at a babysitter’s house, and we got in trouble with my parents afterwards because we weren’t allowed to watch it because of its promotion of paganism,” I responded.

I don’t usually say this part out loud if I’m not in sympathetic company. In mixed groups, a comment like this can result in stunned silence. With Sean, though—with Sean I can say it without concern. Still, these moments feel weird. Maybe this is because in many ways my upbringing was very normal. We popped popcorn and grew tomatoes. We  had game nights and went camping. We went to the library and to church, we had American Girl dolls and read Mandy books.

But when an aunt brought the copy of Harry Potter she was reading with her on a visit, my dad made her leave it in the car for fear it would let demons into our house.

When I go back to my parents’ house for a visit, it’s easy to forget the weirder moments and see the normal. We go window shopping at the mall or sit up late eating ice cream and playing Apples to Apples. We make strawberry pie or heat up the grill. Sally and Bobby play with old matchbox cars or out in the sandbox. Everything seems normal.

And then my mother shares a story about how the night before she prayed demons out of my little sister, bringing her migraine to an end.

I guess for me, life is just like that—a weird mix of the normal and the out of the ordinary. Over time, I’ve come to accept that. I’m thankful to have a husband who is understanding, supportive, and good-natured. Part of this is because for all of their very different moments, our upbringings do share some overall similarities. I’m also thankful for good friends with similar backgrounds who not only understand these moments but have plenty of their own. In fact, sometimes we sit around and swap stories of this sort, comparing notes if you will.

Life. It’s weird like that.