And so it goes.....
“No, it didn’t just happen that way,” my counselor says. “You made it happen.”
I guess so. After 73 years on this planet I’m beginning to realize I made it happen.
It’s interesting my counselor, suggested as a way to deal with my beloved wife dying, deals more with fallout from my difficult childhood.
I consider myself lucky I had a wife willing to look past the mess I was. But my counselor says it wasn’t just luck.
It’s true, I guess. I was unwilling to accept a cheap-shot.
I turned away a really nice girl because I knew our marriage wouldn’t work.
I hope she did all right.
As soon as I married my wife I was scared — like what had I gotten myself into? It seemed like hormones led me astray.
Yet I didn’t allow hormones to lead me astray with that other girl.
College, on the other hand, seemed more luck = that Houghton College (“HO-tin;” as in “hoe,” not “how” or “who”) wasn’t judgmental.
Houghton came from Great Compromise with my hyper-religious father.
He wanted me to attend Moody Bible Institute in Chicago like he did, and thereby become a Bible-beating zealot like he was — want to browbeat and “save” street-vagrants, now called “homeless.”
At that time Moody wasn’t a four-year college; now it is. I wanted a college-degree — so I said.
We also visited Moody in 1960, and I was uncomfortable there. Moody was an urban school; I’m from the suburbs.
Beyond that I wasn’t interested in harassing vagrants.
More may have been at play.
In 1961 I met ***** ******, Houghton Class of ’64. We were on the staff of a religious boys camp in northeastern MD.
****** made Houghton sound interesting, much more than Moody.
So was I rebellious in advocating Houghton instead of Moody?
Perhaps.
For my father the fact Houghton was religious made it worth considering. Later he became angry it didn’t “straighten me out.”
For him “straighten me out” involved beatings and intimidation. Houghton didn’t do that. They attempted to “reason” one into belief.
I still think I’m lucky Houghton wasn’t judgmental. But I woulda resisted intimidation.
The fact it was Houghton instead of Moody seems to prove my counselor right.
I guess so. After 73 years on this planet I’m beginning to realize I made it happen.
It’s interesting my counselor, suggested as a way to deal with my beloved wife dying, deals more with fallout from my difficult childhood.
I consider myself lucky I had a wife willing to look past the mess I was. But my counselor says it wasn’t just luck.
It’s true, I guess. I was unwilling to accept a cheap-shot.
I turned away a really nice girl because I knew our marriage wouldn’t work.
I hope she did all right.
As soon as I married my wife I was scared — like what had I gotten myself into? It seemed like hormones led me astray.
Yet I didn’t allow hormones to lead me astray with that other girl.
College, on the other hand, seemed more luck = that Houghton College (“HO-tin;” as in “hoe,” not “how” or “who”) wasn’t judgmental.
Houghton came from Great Compromise with my hyper-religious father.
He wanted me to attend Moody Bible Institute in Chicago like he did, and thereby become a Bible-beating zealot like he was — want to browbeat and “save” street-vagrants, now called “homeless.”
At that time Moody wasn’t a four-year college; now it is. I wanted a college-degree — so I said.
We also visited Moody in 1960, and I was uncomfortable there. Moody was an urban school; I’m from the suburbs.
Beyond that I wasn’t interested in harassing vagrants.
More may have been at play.
In 1961 I met ***** ******, Houghton Class of ’64. We were on the staff of a religious boys camp in northeastern MD.
****** made Houghton sound interesting, much more than Moody.
So was I rebellious in advocating Houghton instead of Moody?
Perhaps.
For my father the fact Houghton was religious made it worth considering. Later he became angry it didn’t “straighten me out.”
For him “straighten me out” involved beatings and intimidation. Houghton didn’t do that. They attempted to “reason” one into belief.
I still think I’m lucky Houghton wasn’t judgmental. But I woulda resisted intimidation.
The fact it was Houghton instead of Moody seems to prove my counselor right.
posted by BobbaLew at 10:03 AM
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