New Thoughts and New Directions
I am not quite sure where to start this post. What began as the search for one thing has resulted in an answer to another. I will not rehash the old posts, you may read them at your leisure.
Anyone that has read The Preppy Chronicles for a while understands when I say that I do not follow the pack extremely well or maybe I follow the pack all too well. What I have discovered over the past few months is… wait for it…
I have lived my whole live based on someone else’s fear.
I have past that phase of self discovery known as denial and am working through the phase of anger and the beginnings of acceptance. Although, my parents outwardly stated “ All they wanted for my life, was for me to be happy & to follow my dreams.” I have felt that just below the surface there was an undertow of some fear that presented in my mind as “ I will never be as great as my ancestors.” What I have come to realize is, that fear, that unspoken fear, was not my fear but that of my parents that I will never be as powerful of a force as those that preceded me and that somehow they would be to blame and that I would either be just exceedingly brilliant and shine like the noon day Sun or that I would be a dim bulb. In either case, it would mean that my parents would have to deal with their own perceived failings. If brilliant the focus would be “ Why did I not do such extraordinary things, if a dim bulb, where did I go wrong ? As long as I presented in the middle, or became that powerful force all was right in the world, and they would never have to face the Four Horsemen. In the middle there would be only pity at the top wonderment and pride.
When I look back upon my life, and view my parents in this light, it is as if I have had a“ Burning Bush ”
The result has been that, for most of my life, I have done only a few remarkable things.
I know that this sounds as though I am playing the “ Blame Game ” but rest assured that is not the case. I am merely stating that which is now my truth. I started this whole journey in search of one answer: Is what I was taught as a child about God’s thoughts on sex actually what He said. I have as a result of this work been rocketed into a new dimension. A dimension that if I truly take hold of, there is nothing that will prevent me from leading a life formed from the star-dust of the cosmos.
OK, back to earth. When I chose to share all of this with you, I realized that I needed to frame my thoughts concerning this bit of discovery in accordance to the stated purpose of this blog:
“ I would like to begin this edition of The Preppy Chronicles, by sharing with you my hopes and dreams and thoughts about the overall intent of this blog.
My concept for this blog is that it will be a CELEBRATION of living life as a Preppy-WASP Male in a society that is ever increasingly blurring the lines…
It’s about who we are as a society and as a tribe. Why we do the things that we do. And how we view and respond to everyday events, as well as what impact these events have on us. What our role is and how we shape the world around us. And to this end I will ask you to join with me and CELEBRATE ” Taken from “ Preppy to The Bone ”.
I take the last portion of this very seriously,“ How we shape the world around us.”
To this end, I have dug deep into the beginnings of this great country of ours, what I discovered has been a wake-up call for me. The one statement that I have made in regards to our country’s founding: That our national, religious belief system was anti-Catholic has garnered the most response.
Let me put this to rest, the brave men and women who first came to the New England, were Anglican. Which is to say that their allegiance was to the King of England and The Church of England not to the Pope and The Roman Catholic Church. The pilgrims that came later were a mix of Anglican and Puritan. The Puritans were a group that believed that the Church of England, was too much like the Roman Catholic Church, with all of its man-made rituals that had little to do with Christianity, and yet they were still part of the Church of England. The brave souls that came over in 1630 with John Winthrop were a mishmash of Puritans. Most were fairly hard-core. In the years that followed, a certain amount of colonies were set aside as Plantations of Religion. Which meant they did allow Quakers, the Dutch Amish, as well as Anglicans and Puritans. To preserve the moral fiber of the colonies Roman Catholics were not allowed. If you think that this harsh, just wait things do get harsher.
Now, to throw something else into the mix for your consideration. When in 1776, this country declared separation from The King of England they also declared separation from the Church of England. We as a country renounced King and Country. Thus, we also renounced as a country his church. The Roman Catholic Church was not an issue in the colonies at the time. As I have stated, by 1776 the issue was one of economics not religion. It would not be until 1789 that the issue of religion would be of any concern.
The first amendment states: “ Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; ” this is where we will stop for the purpose our discussion. One thing before I close, notice it says: Law, not laws and that singularity of the word is explicitly tied to the establishment of religion. Later, we will look at the notion of the pursuit of happiness and how that relates to the moral compass of this country. If you have read my series on the Power of the Pearl, you know that I will bring this all full circle.
Thank you for reading.
Tags: Preppy, religion, The Preppy/WASP lifestyle, the Puritans, The Roman Catholic Church
This entry was posted on December 15, 2011 at 7:17 PM and is filed under All that's Preppy/WASP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
