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  1. The New YorkerJia Tolentino5/20/1933 min
    4 reads3 comments
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    The New Yorker
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    • Pegeen
      Top reader this weekReading streakScoutScribe
      4 years ago

      I entered first grade in 1962 at The Blessed Sacrament Parish. Back then the Franciscan nuns wore a full habit of black with only a small opening for their face, a white bib, heavy black rosary beads dangling at their sides and orthopedic black shoes barely peeking out beneath their long black dresses. This was a far cry from my beautiful blonde haired, blue eyed mother with the Avon Pink lips. I distinctly remember thinking, she can’t be leaving me here! It was soon discovered I was left handed, which was considered evil, so they tried to force me to write with my right hand by tieing my left to my body. They told me about a God that was my father, up in the sky, who was all loving, all forgiving but also jealous, demanding, punishing, revengeful and could damn me to a place called Hell that was perpetual fire. The scariest was that he was omniscient, and existed everywhere, so no escape from his judgmental eyes. I was born a sinner and pretty much everything was a sin. And if I tried to tell my parents about how mean some of the nuns were, I got into even more trouble because the nuns could never be wrong. Talk about perpetuating fear, confusion, shame, guilt and anxiety! I rebelled in middle school and, like the author, rebelling was only the beginning of trying to rid myself of such damaging indoctrination and replacing it with something that I could truly embody as my Truth. This author’s story is REALLY well written. The Repentagon is beyond my wildest imaginings! To even think such a place is not science fiction is insane! I found this author’s rebellious experimental path very interesting because it’s a world I do not intimately know - Hip-hop music, Delta Momma and Ecstasy. This quote really resonated with me: “And Christian theology convinced me that I had been born in a compromised situation. It made me want to investigate my own ideas about what it means to be good.” I went a less dramatic investigative path of Hinduism, Yoga, Buddhism, Energy Medicine, Reiki and Quantum Physics. As an energy worker at 63, I am finally feeling disentangled from the old and opening to something much more expansive, inspiring and loving. I am not saying all religions are bad because I have had little experience with other religions since leaving mine.

    • bill
      Top reader of all time
      4 years ago

      I really can’t stop thinking about this one.

    • bill
      Top reader of all time
      4 years ago

      Sublime.