Everyone is talking about Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ, and of course I want to see it being raised a catholic and all. "The Passion" is like The Stations of the Cross at Easter come to life ... how cool is that!

We used to go to church every Friday starting the week of Ash Wednesday to do "Stations of the Cross". It never affected me till I was in my hormonal crazy teenage years. I have memories of myself at age 13, balling my eyes out during the whole service, suffering and weeping with JC, wincing at every fall, wishing I was the one who wiped his forehead, pledging my body, heart, mind, soul, and my life to JC forever!

Those were my "high holy catholic girl days", when all I wanted to be was a nun. I remember praying fervently every night for "stigmata" because that meant you were really chosen to be one with JC and suffer with him. Or alternatively fantasizing I was Mary Magdalene and singing to JC "I don't know how to love him", and dreaming about pouring oil and humming "don't you know everything all right, yes everything's fine."

Of course once I hit the age of 15 all of that changed, and I became a "cool left wing intellectual" questioning believer who despised bourgeois middle class values like religion and wore a french beret.

And well that changed again when I turned 16, and decided that what I really needed was to find myself an indian hindu guru so I could do yoga, eat almonds, be a vegetarian and meditate in India or the Himalayas and wear cool hippie outfits.

I cried my heart out at age 13 for Stations of the Cross, so I'll probably be a basket case when I see "The Passion".