--- In [email protected], "Alex Stanley" <j_alexander_stan...@...> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "John" <jr_esq@> wrote: > > > > To All: > > > > Does he really think marriage will solve his problems? > > His problem is the Catholic Church. Ditching the Catholic Church solves his > problem.
Eh, nope! His real problem is indulging in that aspect of his personality that found rewards in being a Catholic. Taking off the Catholicism mask is good, but he's still all set up and ready to attach to some other dogma that yields the same kinds of psychological profits. He'll almost certain go into some sort of teaching or counseling scenario. And that aspect (indulging: repetitively rerunning beliefs that please one's ego) is bone deep and entwined with virtually every other psychological dynamic and cannot be rooted out without wholly cutting asunder every sort of attachment -- the pain of ripping out THOSE ROOTS is massive while dropping "going to church, or being a priest" is a much easier accomplishment. If I have learned anything in life, it's that a concept has little power, but the daily iterations of brain processes that symbolize our attachments -- now that's a potent method for hardwiring one's brain to produce a personality that, because it reprocesses with regularity, creates the illusion of "personality continuity" in our moment by moment existence. And the ego loves its mirror. You can take the guy out of the country, but try to take the country out of the guy -- that's fucking hard. It's like giving up salt after a lifetime of sprinkling salt on everything -- suddenly nothing can please one's taste buds which need to be entirely recalibrated by a life of OTHER kinds of processing that are iterated with as much frequency and over as many years as the "use of salt" entailed. One has to get used to saltlessness when one is eating potato chips. Giving up salt is easy; giving it up for every mouthful of food for the rest of your life is hard. That's why Turq ran away from America. It was like quitting Catholicism; and now, every day, he has to get up and define himself as an expat to his neo-society -- that daily grind, for years, will turn him into a non-American, but it's a close race between him and death. My bet is that there's not enough time left in his life to really saturate himself with expat-ness enough to drown out and dilute his American parts. Funnily enough, Turq's posts here would be recognized by most of the world as "from an American." He's proud that he's anointed himself with the moniker of "free to do whatever the fuck I want to do cuz I got money and skills, so take your dogmas and shove 'em up your puritanical asses." Try wearing that mask openly in most societies of the world. Only in his tourist areas etc. can Turq pull off that kind of anarchy and remain reasonably safe from physical attack -- he'd not be accepted into any society if they really knew him as well as we here have come to know him and grasp that he's out to wreck havoc on any belief. The priest has a long long long way to go before he's not a priest. Edg
