LOL, best thread ever!
Let me tell ya'll about the one time I got my butt tossed around a timeout room at Straight.
I had run away from a higher phase and been brought back. Since I was going to be put through it for awhile no matter what, I decided to just break w/ normal practice and
actually be honest. So some kid stands up to confront me and says something to the same effect as our resident pro-Hyde anon here; "You really messed me up! I looked up to you! Now with you leaving, it makes me think the whole program is full of shit!" "Very astute!" I said, "I do think the whole program is full of shit." [arms flailed]
Nother kid gets called on, this one was on a higher phase and standing guard at the door. He said something about how I didn't deserve the group, had no apreciation for all the love. I had had a mad crush on this guy since the moment I first saw him. Was planning on getting out, losing the "fluorescent tan" and extra weight then looking him up. I said to him that he was right, I didn't belong there and if he would kindly step aside from the door I'd be happy to oblige him.
So then the Staffer restated his demand to me to apologize to the group for failing them. I argued that all I had done was try to deprive them of my company and, as Reagan had just pointed out, I was an unworthy, unwanted piece of shit anyway and so I didn't see anything to disagree about. And I couldn't apologize to Group for running, it wouldn't be honest. I wasn't sorry. I was sorry for having let myself get dragged back in.
This all went on for a short while, maybe 20 minutes, followed by the weirdest 'restraint' I remember from that place. For a couple of hours, they pinned me down to the floor in the usual fashion, only I refused to fight or even holler about it. I wouldn't help them pretend there had been any good reason for doing what they were doing to me and wouldn't let them make me act like one of the animals they accused us all of being. Sometime after that, I got stood up and confronted again. This time it was a trip to the timeout room w/ a tag team of 3 or 4 big girls to bounce me off the walls, yell in my face, poke bruises in my chest. Same thing. Eventually, one of them got frustrated enough to throw a closed fisted punch to my face, breaking my nose. I still didn't react. Sr. Staff actually gave up and quit the business and just started ignoring me from that point.
I never did understand that. I fully expected to get the same rough treatment as anybody else did who refused to comply. I've always wondered why they played it differently w/ me or whether it was just my own perception that it was different.
Honesty! The first and most impotent rule! I hope you don't get busted, kid. I'm pullin' for ya!
When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, "Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe?"
-- Quentin Crisp
