S4E01: Holiday Horror Stories: How to Survive Christmas Eve Services, with Nicole Marinescu

While individual growth and self-discovery are vital to our healing and human evolution, we live in the context of a myriad of relationships. And the end-of-year holidays are a time of year in which many folks are engaging in a lot of different relationships at the same time or in close succession.   This December, we're presenting a series called Holiday Horror Stories. The holiday season replicates the most narrow practices of family, gender, and relationships; spend three hours watching The Hallmark Channel for more information. Sometimes the advice from the psychotherapy and wellness world is helpful, and often it isn't. This series is focused on surviving through laughter.   We're joined by our editor and creative genius Nicole Marinescu, who shares her experiences of:   Orthodoxy and Culture Shock (22:00): While discussing how the Orthodox Church functions, Nicole shares her experience with culture shock, "When I went to my first Catholic service with my boyfriend, he stood there the whole time and he spoke in English, which shocked me. Because I genuinely thought all of these services were just Latin, or Greek, or whatever. And it was only an hour, people shook hands and they left.” Romanian Orthodox Christianity is not approachable, even to its own followers, and like EMPish communities focuses on dedication to God and the Church, even if that Church does not function in an accessible lounge.    Opulence (27:00): When discussing differences between EMPish Churches and Orthodoxy, Nicole points out how Orthodox Priests wear lavish gold gowns and big headpieces. Though both Church and State are intertwined in America and Romania, one tries to hide it better from the public eye: “We're opulent. So I think if you see a picture of [the Priest], then you understand politically how the church functions within these countries and how they're held in higher regard than the actual government that gives you most of the context you need.”   Blood in Context (32:00): During a discussion of how pig’s blood is openly cooked with, Julia points out the disparities in our societal view towards different types of blood: “Jeremiah and I were recently on a menstruation podcast and I'm thinking we're obsessed with the blood of Jesus, the blood of pigs, but we can't even talk about periods using accurate language. We just have sanitary items. It makes me sad that the blood of a pig would be more important than the blood that I lose every month.”   Relationships During the Holidays (35:00): Jeremiah notes societal and religious pressure on spending the holidays together as a couple, when the choice to do them apart may be healthier and more beneficial for certain people. “During the holiday season, American culture commercializes what many religious contexts do--the idea of marriage, the enmeshment of relationships, the two shall become one. That's really cool, Nicole, to hear how you and your partner have said, no, you know what, we're not going to practice that.”    Holiday Advice (43:00): Nicole discusses her favorite tip for surviving annoying Uncles who ask silly questions during the holidays, who are looking for an argument: “The best piece of advice I heard is when he says, "What do you think about gay people?" You look him dead in the eye and you go, "Kind of weird that you asked me that, why'd you ask?" Their faces go blue.” Sometimes we do not or cannot always argue, but we can make them feel uncomfortable for asking a silly question.   Bad Holiday Tips (47:00): Julia notes how the pop psychology advice of “just put up boundaries” does not work in a multitude of contexts, immigrant families, EMPish families, etc. “I was having a conversation with my best friend about this, who is also a part of an immigrant family. And Jeremiah, you and I have had conversations about this ad nauseam, the super simplistic pop psychology language of setting boundaries and just cutting toxic people out drives me fucking crazy for a lot of reasons.”