It became more apparent as time went on that there was much more to Chris than met the eye.
Initially, I thought he was just a dick. And I believe the nickname "Goody Two Shoes" may have come up a time or two... lol. He was *often* mocking me for being a Hermione Granger type after we broke the ice.
In the end, back then, I found that was a very good person. And after his death I discovered that he saved many lives through his career. Here is a video of him just a few months ago:
I was always questioning things as a child, and my transformation was a punctuated equilibrium of sorts. I made big leaps at specific times in life. This time was a big leap for me. It (and then grad school a year later) was a transformative time when I shed misconceptions based on religious dogma... i.e. that everyone who was not a believer was "evil" or "out to get us." Conversely, the church people at that time became increasingly toxic, stifling, controlling, and fake, so it provided an obvious contrast.
And I found the rock we jumped off. I will go there as soon as I can and have some black and tan Yuengling in his memory. <3
Uhm, so you guys jumped off a rock that big without knowing a.) if there were any rocks below that you might hit; b.) left your clothes up above and you’re gonna swim ashore to an unknown ground with unknown distance to top of rock?
You two were so opposite, sparks were bound to fly.
Looking forward to a Substack where you tell us what happened in grad school. 😂
Religion can really make a muck of things sometimes. But I’ve come to an understanding about religion. I didn’t grow up religious (it was forboden in communist Bulgaria) but I always felt it was trying to sell itself as a moral compass, but in fact, very much like science and spirituality, it’s simply a way to explain the nature of reality; it’s an origin story vying for our belief. I can accept it so much so that way than some finger wagging morality tale.
"very much like science and spirituality, it’s simply a way to explain the nature of reality; it’s an origin story vying for our belief. I can accept it so much so that way than some finger wagging morality tale."
The funny thing is that I did not reject religion because I was tired of being "oppressed" morally. That's always the trope... the good little Christian girl wanted to rebel and go on a hedonistic rampage!
Couldn't have been further from the truth. I never did drugs or got drunk or "hated God" or any of the other trite BS.
How can you hate something that doesn't exist? lol.
Nope. It was simple. I was tired of being repressed intellectually and told I could not think certain things. The exact reason I am over covid psychosis and I have been a critical thinker my entire life discarding worn-out ideologies and philosophies that do not work for me.
Don't fence me in.
It never made any sense at all to me and still doesn't. In my early 20s I came to the conclusion that, OK, I could see that religion offers people a hope of eternal life and immortality. I think we see signs of that even in our paleolithic ancestors prior to organized religion or even monotheistic religion. Obviously when one of our loved ones dies, we want to believe they are still out there somewhere. Paleolithic ancestors buried people together, fingers interwined, with jewelry, flowers, etc. As we do now. We want to believe they live on. It's not just a carcass. (For this reason I could not donate Robb's body to 'science.' It was just pure hell to think of his body being carved up by a bunch of community college anatomy and physiology students -- that's what happens to the bodies. I don't want my husband's body to be treated like a feral cat for dissection.... of course, he claimed he wouldn't have cared.)
But even on that issue, I came to the conclusion that, at least for me, it's very disempowering to believe one can live forever. It's disempowering to living life right here on this earth.
Yes! I just remembered that we didn't have internet or TV in the Hilton, either.
BRING THAT BACK. We need to go back to the future, goddamit.
Who needs TV when we’re living in the middle of a sci-fi thriller?
Now that I think about it.... we didn't have a landline in that place either. haha!
Holy shit. Now you’re just teasing... 😂 sounds like heaven. Stuck in a cabin with a cute boy at that age. I’d be in trouble.
I WAS in trouble. Kind of a different kind of damsel in distress. LOL.
Gonna have to tell us more about that story. 😎
My lips are sealed ☺️
One of my favorite parts about this story is that you took the smaller room as a sign of good faith.
It became more apparent as time went on that there was much more to Chris than met the eye.
Initially, I thought he was just a dick. And I believe the nickname "Goody Two Shoes" may have come up a time or two... lol. He was *often* mocking me for being a Hermione Granger type after we broke the ice.
In the end, back then, I found that was a very good person. And after his death I discovered that he saved many lives through his career. Here is a video of him just a few months ago:
https://wnyt.com/news/digital-extra-surviving-an-avalanche/6433444/
I was always questioning things as a child, and my transformation was a punctuated equilibrium of sorts. I made big leaps at specific times in life. This time was a big leap for me. It (and then grad school a year later) was a transformative time when I shed misconceptions based on religious dogma... i.e. that everyone who was not a believer was "evil" or "out to get us." Conversely, the church people at that time became increasingly toxic, stifling, controlling, and fake, so it provided an obvious contrast.
And I found the rock we jumped off. I will go there as soon as I can and have some black and tan Yuengling in his memory. <3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuQDajmSEwQ
Uhm, so you guys jumped off a rock that big without knowing a.) if there were any rocks below that you might hit; b.) left your clothes up above and you’re gonna swim ashore to an unknown ground with unknown distance to top of rock?
You two were so opposite, sparks were bound to fly.
Looking forward to a Substack where you tell us what happened in grad school. 😂
Religion can really make a muck of things sometimes. But I’ve come to an understanding about religion. I didn’t grow up religious (it was forboden in communist Bulgaria) but I always felt it was trying to sell itself as a moral compass, but in fact, very much like science and spirituality, it’s simply a way to explain the nature of reality; it’s an origin story vying for our belief. I can accept it so much so that way than some finger wagging morality tale.
"very much like science and spirituality, it’s simply a way to explain the nature of reality; it’s an origin story vying for our belief. I can accept it so much so that way than some finger wagging morality tale."
The funny thing is that I did not reject religion because I was tired of being "oppressed" morally. That's always the trope... the good little Christian girl wanted to rebel and go on a hedonistic rampage!
Couldn't have been further from the truth. I never did drugs or got drunk or "hated God" or any of the other trite BS.
How can you hate something that doesn't exist? lol.
Nope. It was simple. I was tired of being repressed intellectually and told I could not think certain things. The exact reason I am over covid psychosis and I have been a critical thinker my entire life discarding worn-out ideologies and philosophies that do not work for me.
Don't fence me in.
It never made any sense at all to me and still doesn't. In my early 20s I came to the conclusion that, OK, I could see that religion offers people a hope of eternal life and immortality. I think we see signs of that even in our paleolithic ancestors prior to organized religion or even monotheistic religion. Obviously when one of our loved ones dies, we want to believe they are still out there somewhere. Paleolithic ancestors buried people together, fingers interwined, with jewelry, flowers, etc. As we do now. We want to believe they live on. It's not just a carcass. (For this reason I could not donate Robb's body to 'science.' It was just pure hell to think of his body being carved up by a bunch of community college anatomy and physiology students -- that's what happens to the bodies. I don't want my husband's body to be treated like a feral cat for dissection.... of course, he claimed he wouldn't have cared.)
But even on that issue, I came to the conclusion that, at least for me, it's very disempowering to believe one can live forever. It's disempowering to living life right here on this earth.
The rock was well-known in the area for being safe to jump off. My recollection is that Chris did scope it out from above first.
Anyway, it was the 90s. We didn't tell everyone "BE SAFE!" all the time! It was a phrase that was rarely heard, actually.
<3 <3 <3
I'm softer on the religious than I was in my early 20s.
Today, I just want the nuts to leave me alone, but like Howard Beale, they won't. LOL