I hugged a Vicar and I liked it.

This is of course the title of Katy Perry's much lesser known song.

When I boarded the train today it was surprisingly full but that doesn't really matter because, the tickets come with a seat number. However, when I arrived at my seat which I had chosen because it had a table and room to work, there was an older couple sitting holding hands there and as tempted as I was to kick them out and teach them some manners, a seat behind my intended was free, except for a laptop bag sitting there, which a smiling woman happily moved.

I thanked her and sat down beside her where she was already working, MacBook open. Great, time to get some writing in before my travels for the next three days begin. But, I made the mistake of saying hi and asking where she was coming from and when she asked what I was doing where I was and what I did, I returned the question and she told me she was a newly ordained Vicar.

Interesting. We talked instead of burying ourselves into the screens.

It is not rare to have female vicars in Finland but even now it is quite controversial and she was saying that in her area, she is the only one around the parts. We talked about all manner of things and a lot about relationships and children, parenting, aged care and of course, the existence/ non-existence of God, the legitimacy of scripture, the incorrectness of doctrine, charity and guilt, selfless acts, homosexuality, the limitation and traditional mentality of many church groups and of course, Tinder.

The funny thing is that it wasn't me who brought up most of these conversations, it was her and who wanted to discuss them and her who wanted to question them in various ways. She recognized early on that the discussion was going to be interesting enough for her also and, that she was going to have a few things to look into later, things she actually noted down both verbally and on paper.

She was a doctoral researcher at some point and was saying how much she loved the tasks but, she tended to get lost in them and realized it was unhealthy for her mental state but, the taking of notes and researching points of interest deeply stuck with her regardless.

I have had the chance to talk to a few priests in Finland and strangely, 75% of them have been women but the numbers are more like 1:5. What I have found is that in general, the religious types in Finland (and likely the Nordics as a whole) are generally more pragmatic about their faith than most however, the Finnish culture of organised governments for everything pushes heavily into the church area also. This makes the church quite slow to move, which doesn't really surprise anyone I am sure.

What I have found when it comes to the female priests is that they are much more open to the discussion and much more likely to question their own position in relation to what they hear. Tonight, she wasn't shy to say if she had another view but, she did take the time to consider my own views and of course, I took the time to consider hers, even though many of them are similar to what I have heard before. It is always good to check alternate points of information to see what holds value in there.

A couple of times during the conversation, she even lowered her voice when speaking things and said similar to, Most people in the church will disagree with me but... concerning her much more liberal views on various "rules" that have been pushed regardless of their relevance and contentious points in the Bible when it comes to what is said and the alternatives of what it could mean.

It was a very surprising discussion in many ways and I am glad that I spent my time with her instead of writing on Steem (weirdness) as the discussion jumped, slid and crossed allover the place which is, my kind of conversation style. The journey was only 1.5 hours for me and she was going on for another couple ahead so as we approached the station I'd disembark at, I said my goodbyes and thanked her for the discussion.

Finns in general aren't the most social or touchy-feely people in the world but, then I hugged her. I think she was surprised by this but she recovered quickly enough that most wouldn't notice. For me, it seemed like the most appropriate end to our discussion, even though I do not know her name and she does not know mine.

In my world, conversations like that make any day better, no matter what has happened earlier or, what has to happen after. What has to happen now though is I have to get to pack and get to bed because I will be up again in five hours or so and have a lot of travelling to do before the work begins.

I think I lost my Vicar-hugging virginity tonight. Score.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]

I think I will be mobile only and pressed for time the next few days so, let's see what kinds of space I can get to post but, once a day at least ;)