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Andrew Chen's avatar

I went to a Jesuit all-boys high school. Every year the contradiction of that place seeps deeper into my brain.

On the one hand - we had a school counselor who would recite the Lord's Prayer over the loudspeaker with gender-swapped pronouns ("Our Mother, who art in Heaven") ; my junior year theology teacher vehemently defended gay marriage and the legitimacy of LGBT personhood generally; one of the priests would break the brittle childhood faith of boys every year by showing there was no archeological evidence of the Israelite enslavement in Egypt nor the subsequent Exodus; other priests introduced me to liberation theology and a solidarity-centered, leftist social justice framework that would chart a course for the rest of my life.

On the other hand. Drunk moms stuffing cash tips into the waistbands of the popular, good-looking boys volunteering at the annual Crab Feed. The whistles and catcall at the fashion show fundraiser with our sister all-girls' schools. A Board Member (and local Coca-Cola bottler executive?) intervening personally to ridicule me for writing an article about Coca-Cola's alliance w/ death squads in Colombia to crush labor organizing. A complex web of sexual impropriety between one of the deans and several of the female faculty that resulted in his firing and, predictably, a petition for his reinstatement by the water polo alumni.

There was a beautiful heart to that place that genuinely sought to produce "Men for Others", but there was also a miasma of nouveau-riche suburban depravity and political conservatism that just *hung* on it like rotten moss.

Idk what the point of this comment is other than to say you evoked a particular, powerful mood Lolo! Wonderful writing per usual.

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UmmBrandi's avatar

Happy Sunday, Happy Reading! 🙏🏼❤️

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