Toooooooooooooooooo much. Reading the responses, not just to the post I made, but in most, I do find a consistent, persistent theme, ...a commonality, ...your bond. Me, me, me, me, me, ...I, I, I, I, I , ...I was subjected to..., this happened to me..., ad nauseam.
Though for each of you, The Seed was a personal experience, here?s a newsflash, you weren?t the only ones there.
Why so much attention to self? Where you unaware of the presence of others? Where you (are you) so totally self-absorbed that empathy, compassion for those who were grateful and were being helped is of little or no significance to you?
Did your parents bring you to the program because of your angelic, exemplary behavior?
Or do you just lack the capacity see the positive and the good because in your minds it somehow infringed on you?, (i.e., mommy and daddy didn?t let me have things my way) Too bad, grow up.
Nowhere, I repeat, nowhere in your posts have I been able to find references to, ...oh, yeah, I remember this person was so messed up and I was able to help him/her by..., ...wasn?t it great when this person asked me for help and I was able to..., etc. You get the point. NOWHERE!
If this doesn?t tell you something about yourselves or if your first urge is to rebut rather than reflect, then yes, I repeat, you did not get it!
As for the insinuations of the horrors (lol) Stalinist techniques, mind control, deprivation, and humilation, I can only tell you that I spent the first 8 years of academic life at Our Lady of Lourdes Grammar School. The Seed was like a Hawaiian vacation after that. If you think Art or Lybbi were tyrannical, adept at the practice of badgering or intimidation, I only wish you would have known Sister Cecilia. One particularly nasty scar that resulted from her handywork remains prominent on my right hand to this day. Does this mean I should advocate the closing of parochial schools? Does this mean the experience had no positive value? Does this mean I should harbor resentment? Does this mean I should start a web site designed to advocate elementary student rights?
We don?t live in a perfect world or society, nor do we evolve beyond the condition human. Deny it if you like, but every negative post I?ve read here is either based in the expectation of perfection, (yet disguised in intellectualism, supported by ambiguous philosophy and ideology), the product of those unfortunates who still seek pleasure from disparaging others, or those who have become addicted to mental masturbation.
Though I do feel for some of you, individually, this in no way negates or diminishes the joy I still feel for those went on to lead happy and rewarding lives, rather than death or incarceration, because of The Seed. If some you experienced suffering in your teenage years, who doesn?t?
Bitterness, resentment, anger, hostility, self-pity, et al are not independent entities that possess you. These are choices you make. It?s what you did with the feelings, after the fact, that has created the negativity you experience today, and for that, you and no one but you is responsible.
This isn?t unique, your not unique.
Pseudo-intellectualism, victim mentalities, advocates of rights without responsibilities, the myopic pursuit of pettiness disguised as righteousness, and, as stated, me, me, me, me, me, are formidable cancers that are eroding our country, our world today.
For many here, truth seems to be an abstract concept. For others, their regard and esteem for the truth seems to be directly correlated to how much and how well they can use it as a weapon.
I leave with little doubt that responses to this post will make this point more effectively than anything I could possibly say.
P.S. ...and lawyers liars,...geez, ...whodda ever thunka dat?
