[Ghoulish Delight]

Put simply, inclusion. As I think I've made clear, I'm well aware that organized religion exists and is pervasive for a reason. A document, agreed upon, set of baseline rules and rituals that allow a society to efficiently impress those too young to understand the complexity of reality with the basics of moral and ethical behavior is a damned useful and attractive thing. I happen to not believe that the only possible such set HAS to involve teaching the supernatural, however for better or for worse (I'd argue worse), that's the option I'm faced with. It's not ideal, but especially in light of my firm belief that family connectedness is an essential component in my life and in my child's, I don't have a whole lot of other avenues open to me. Yes, I could (and will) explore groups like the secular humanists who are trying to bridge that gap, and may be doing so quite well. But the fact remains even if that turns out to be as good as it can be, they are still not my family and I'm still left with the choice of abandoning that which connects me to my family vs. making some compromises and hope that I can get the message across sufficiently that we do so by choice, out of tradition, to connect to a community, not out of superstition.