gemini://thurk.org/blog/227.gmi

Christian, in his infinite wisdom and silliness, typed the following to me on some sort of chat mechanism. The mechanism itself involves a type of grease-stained rodent not found in these parts any longer. In fact, **all** of the rodents are gone. One day, no one could find one. I'm surprised the mechanism survives and is still in working condition this evening. I mourn the loss of the rodentia.

**BUT** ... Christian, in his infinite wisdom and silliness, typed the following to me:

> My trust issues stem from my childhood, when my mother, or perhaps father,

> would suspend me for hours upside down with goggles in an aquarium filled

> with mildly carnivorous fish. One nostril was closed, while the other was

> "sealed" around a straw through which I breathed. The straw was just short

> enough so that if I relaxed my entire body it would become submerged. Then my

> mother/father/community would take turns flashing cards though the glass,

> with various words and phrases upon them, such as "mother", "state",

I'll treat this as some sort of adolescent allegory. These happenings begin long before adolescence, however. They did for me, anyway. I suspect they did for Christian, as well. *Brainwashing* ... I never heard that term until much later. I sat on a pew at church for many years. That church was the sort of aquarium that Christian is writing about.

The semi-carniverous fish are the thoughts vomited violently from the pulpit onto the congregation. Keeping **stiff** is my concentration. The congregation must not be left to their own thoughts. Were they to *relax*, the straw would dip beneath the surface. A nasty shock awaits when one's breathing apparatus is occluded. I may have let the straw slip below a number of times. I probably received that nasty shock. My attention surely snapped back to the pulpit. Lapping up the vomit and chewing on its chunks was the only proper way.

The aquarium became more complex in *high school*. The impenetrable walls were the authority figures. Teachers were translucent enough to flash words and phrases at me. I had to mirror them. Otherwise, the fish were told to feast on my face. I had pock marks galore. Blood did not clot easily in the warm water, but flowed freely and further obscured the translucence of the maestras. My mistakes trebled. The feeding began once again. Finally, I was nothing but a fleshless skull.

That opaque skin of yours doesn't fool me, Herr Principal

Topics: memory, high school, brainwashing

2013-12-23