Back in high school, in the 1960s, my Catholic friends used to have CCD classes some nights; and the next day, as we walked home from school, they’d tell me what they’d learned.
We had a lot of laughs at their teacher’s expense, a priest named Father H___. Oh, boy, what a huckleberry! He just wasn’t with it, man!
“You won’t believe what that old boob Father H___ said to me last night,” said one of these kids, one day. “He said, ‘Y’know what your trouble is? You’re a humanist!'” We all exploded into laughter. Like there could possibly be anything even a little tiny bit wrong with humanism! That was rich, even for Father H___. He’s not just out of it. He’s crazy! Haw-haw-haw! If he only knew, or even just suspected, how much smarter we were than him–!
It’s a memory that causes me no little embarrassment.
Father H___, you were right, you couldn’t have been more right, and we were stuck-up young fools. And then along came college and made us even worse! I wasn’t in your class, but I heard all about it and was just as foolish as my friends: I, too, should have listened to you!
But no–we all succumbed to that old school-and-college trick of being led to believe we were tons smarter than our parents, than anybody over 30, except for our teachers and professors who told us how smart we were: and that was how they so easily manipulated us. Young minds, wired for trust, can be so defenseless.
*Sigh* Live and learn.
The older I get, the smarter my father becomes. 🙂 Same here, I cringe at some of the notions I was taken with in my youth. All these bright and shiny new ideas just waiting for someone as smart as my generation to come along and put them into practice. Only later do you find out that these are not new ideas but instead are old ideas that have failed throughout history.
The hope is we live and learn, but unfortunately some only complete half of that – the first half. The learning part really lags behind for some.
(I won’t be around much today, Lee, and possibly for a couple of days. Flu or some sort of bug has given me the yuckies)
Oh, no! Get well soon, Linda, you are in my prayers.
Linda, I’ll keep you in prayer. I’m still hacking away at the residual cough from my 3-week flu, and I know how yucky those yuckies can be. May Christ the Good Physician give you comfort and rapid healing. Amen.
Phoebe, thank you so much. You, Lee and everyone here in our little family are in my prayers nightly.
Michael has just been summoned by his brother to the nursing home where his mom has been since a series of unfortunate and unlikely events. She’s just about to step over into eternity with Our Lord. Prayers for this family are so very much appreciated during this time. Thank you everyone. God bless all.
Speaking of yuckies … just as I was finally recovering from the “B” flu, last night I came down with a stomach flu. So I won’t be around much either, and prayers would be appreciated.
Oh, no, Phoebe… Of course we will all pray for you, get well soon.
Prayers always, Phoebe. Feel better soon. I’m still down too. It’s not fun, for sure.
Prayers for Linda and for Michael and his mother. In high school in the early 1960’s if a girl was sexually active, she was whispered about and blackballed. Today, if a high school girl is not sexually active she is some kind of radical.
At the high school where I subbed, the unwed pregnant teenage girl was treated like royalty.
Thank you so much, whiterabbit.