on legitimacy

last night, talking with the mom, we were discussing what it is that makes a wedding officiant "legitimate" in the context of whether my bro is or is not precisely that.

she was making the point that whether it's a rabbi, or a judge, or a priest, or a shaman, he's got the cultural weight behind him that gives him a certain legitimacy which a ULC-ordained minister, in her view, lacks.

to which i said the following, "you know what it is that qualifies a shaman as a shaman, right, ma?"

she did not, exactly, to which i said, "the ability to identify and correctly administer psychoactive hallucinogenic plants," at which she chuckled, perhaps deciding to remove the shaman from her list of legitimate religious figures.

i've got a great set of family figures. har de har.