Big strides, leaps & bounds, growing up, and getting wise

I think I've accomplished all of these in the last week....

For the first time in my entire life, I've managed to successfully avoid getting entangled in an argument with my Mother. And I've done so in one of the most contentious areas of our relationship: religion.

How did I manage this, you ask? I'm still shocked at the relative simplicity of the way in which I did so...

I simply said, "No."

That was it. No explanations, no excuses, no long and ponderous thoughts shared with her.... Just a simple no. And, as it turns out, there really isn't much to find to argue with in a simple no. Beautiful in it's simplicity, isn't it?

She asked me to do something that I couldn't do without compromising one of my most strongly held beliefs, so I simply said no. And for once, I kept my mouth shut after that. And for once, so did she.

So our argument waiting to happen never even got started.