If you find that you don't care about anything in life anymore, then that means you can do anything that you want. The only thing holding you back is inertia and social pressure. Maybe you don't want a motorcycle, but that's the direction you should be thinking. You like hiking? Buy a nice pack, build up your stamina, and start working on the Appalachian Trail. Tell your wife that you are making changes, invite her along for the ride. See if the two of you can cooperate on those changes. Sign her up for the Fetish-A-Week Club until something fires her up. Trick her into talking about it. Force change to occur; in your situation, the worst thing is no change. Divorce may be necessary, but why not let it all out there first? Maybe the wife will be disgusted with you, but, so what? Embrace emotional connections while disregarding social constraints. Embrace the jobbiness of your job. Cease to care. Go through the motions and spend your spare time flirting with the like-minded or mocking others fantasy curling teams. Become a practicing Luddite. Become an expert on something unhealthy, like expensive cigars or illegal moonshine. Who makes the best illegal whiskey in the US? Why don't you know? It is time to find out! The point is that the only real thing of value in life is the time you have remaining. If you don't value that time highly, then why not spend it extravagantly? The worst that can happen is...wait, you're already dealing with the worst that can happen, aren't you? Well, why not spend some of your time, money and emotional energy on shit you like?

Little brother is wrong! His religion is wrong! His career choices were wrong! His refusal to dutifully obey his elders is wrong!

Many, many people cannot tolerate any disagreement about religion. Dogma must not be questioned. Regardless of the belief system, these people respond with hostility and aggression when confronted with disagreement. This LW probably thinks she is above this kind of behavior, but, in my experience, atheists and their ilk can be more dogmatically inflexible than most Christians. The LW must accept the old religion (the parents probably think she is a believer), but this new Catholicism gives her the chance to act out her anti-religion beliefs without alienating her parents. Congratulations! Little brother is the bad guy, and you, maybe, get to be the smug hypocrite. (Of course, if I'm wrong and your parents know about your lack of faith, then I'm the asshole. Just ignore me and listen to all the others telling you to back off.)

BTW, LW, I wonder why you chose to keep your faith background abstracted: "non-Christian". Why not let us know what it is? Are you so sure that it isn't important here? How can anyone give you good advice without that very important detail? It almost seems as if you are just as ashamed of your parents faith as you are of your brother's planned conversion. You know, most all of us Salon readers don't hate Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Shintoists, Hindus, Jainists or Animists much at all. (Well, there are a couple of real jerks lurking around.) Your use of "non-Christian" suggests that this problem is really far more about your personal issues than it is about your brother.

The only right answer about religion is simply: "This is mine. That is yours." You should congratulate your parents. They chose to come to America. Now, their son is an American. That's what they wanted, wasn't it? Sit everyone down and watch Bend It Like Beckham, then dance together during the wedding party. It's fun.

The human brain is the best classifying device ever. That is what it does. What is a table? We all know, but try to write a definition for one, and imagine all the exceptions to that definition that will spring up. We know what a table is. The computer that can identify tables accurately is still a distant dream. We classify. That is what we are. You want us to not be human.

In fact, you don't even recognize that you are busily classifying as you complain about people classifying. You have classified types of human into two groups: labels I like and those I don't like. I bet that this one fits into the don't like category: wife. You don't like that, do you? She's Joe's wife. Why don't you like that?

You don't like the fact that people have stereotypes. That's nice. Human culture depends on the existence of stereotypes. Now, negative, inaccurate, harmful stereotypes are bad. Stripper = dirty, worthless woman? That's what you don't like. You need Lenny Bruce. Go back and listen to that Lenny Bruce bit about using racist terms. We can all actively control the power language has. I suggest you start answering the question "What do you do?" with "I'm a stripper." Why not?

Wow, what synchronicity.

BTW, I'm not a number! I'm a human being!

Well, it's a line from somewhere. I'm not that good.

You know, a judo match is over when one human participant manages to throw the other so that they land on their back. Poor Melissa. Game, set, match: Hutman. Ouch, what a takedown.