| Cathleen Falsani

Asking big questions was fashionable on ‘Sex’

There was more than just sex in that city.

In the last six years, there was plenty of friendship, fun, hot guys, great fashion and general fabulousness.

Neuroses. Angst. Loss. Triumph. Struggle.

And even a little good old-fashioned — and new-fangled — religion.

According to my records, the ladies of “Sex and the City” — individually or as a group — went to church at least nine times in the last six years, which is nine more times than the Brady Bunch ever did.

Carrie, et al., attended five weddings, four funerals, two Shabbat meals, one baptism and a bat mitzvah.

And for the first time on the small screen, “SATC” introduced viewers to the Jewish ritual of the mikvah, when Charlotte York McDougal Goldenblatt bathed in its waters as the final step in her conversion from Anglican Christianity to Judaism.

Miranda Hobbes confronted the meaning of her own lack of faith when Steve wanted their son, Brady, to celebrate his first sacrament: baptism.

Even thoroughly secular Samantha Jones, in her unique way, re-evaluated the meaning of life when faced with breast cancer, and found a surprising ally in a Roman Catholic nun.

Religion and spirituality were hardly the focus of “SATC.” But they weren’t excluded or avoided, either.

There was plenty of soul searching in the city.

Usually it appeared as Carrie Bradshaw sat at her desk in her sweet Manhattan apartment typing away at the keyboard of her Macintosh laptop.

The question of the week. A spiritual-not-religious, Generation X version of an existential conundrum.

Frequently Carrie’s brainteasers dealt with the foibles and frustrations of relationships with men, or the challenges of being a single woman staring down 40 as what Bridget Jones might call a “singleton.”

But often, the question Carrie wrestled with went far deeper than sexual politics.

Over the years, she has asked many of life’s important questions, and not just those addressing everything you ever wanted to know about sex but were afraid to ask.

Among the quandaries Carrie has pondered are:

Can you ever really forgive if you can’t forget?

No matter how hard we look, do we ever really see ourselves clearly?

Do we really want these things, or are we programmed to think we do?

Is it smarter to follow your heart or your head?

What are we fighting for?

No matter how much you travel or how much you run from it, can you ever really escape your past?

Soul mates: Reality or torture device?

Do actions really speak louder than words?

What’s so scary about support?

When does compromising become compromise?

Are we there yet?

In matters of love, how do you know when it’s right?

What’s it all worth?

Is there such thing as relationship karma?

Are we being too fast to judge judgment?

What’s the harm in believing?

Why gamble if we know the house always wins?

Should you judge a book by its cover?

Why are we shoulding all over ourselves?

Denial: Friend or foe?

Did we have it right in high school?

Do we search for lessons to lessen the pain?

When did we stop being free to be you and me?

When will waiting for the one be done?

Why do we keep investing?

Do we need distance to get closer?

How did we wind up in the dark?

Just how dangerous is an open heart?

Is hope like a drug we need to go off of, or is it keeping us alive?

Can you make a mistake and miss your fate?

Carrie Bradshaw is no St. Teresa of Avila.

But she is a seeker. Like so many of us.

She wants to do the right thing — if she can figure out what it is.

She wants to find what’s true, what matters and what doesn’t.

As the final act of her modern-day more-or-less-morality play approaches Sunday, many of us are waiting anxiously to see what answers she’s found.

And what questions she’ll leave us to ponder in her absence.

What makes a television show more than just a television show?

Soul, sisters.