One last warm, humid night in Madison. Tomorrow, it’ll be time to head back home.

Mathias and Nora’s dedications went well. I got kind of cranky about the sermon–I predicted references to Stephen Jay Gould, and we ended up getting a whole section–but the dedication portion at least was nice. I don’t want to say more about our time at the Unitarian society itself, as we were self-invited guests and put ourselves (and our baby) up to it. I can say, though, that if anything, this weekend served as a reminder that I personally don’t see much difference between spirituality and religion–religion, to a large extent, strikes me as little more than organized spirituality–and that I have a deep aversion to pomp and ritual of any sort. While in theory I’m OK with its use to highlight and identify the things we find important, the frequency with which its used to prop up ideas that may not stand up unadorned to scrutiny causes me to become uncomfortable whenever I’m in its presence.

In other words, I doubt I’ll ever regret skipping my college graduation ceremony to go camping.

Anyway, the party after the dedication was cool. My parents were able to drop in for a bit, and Ben and Beth were able to make it down from Two Rivers. It was good to visit everyone, even if the visits themselves were brief.

Mathias slept for most of his party. When out and about today, though, he was consistently chipper.

We have a great baby.