My mother . . .
I mentioned a month or so ago that my mother made me a copy of The Secret and that I couldn't finish listening to it because I found it so ludicrous. Honestly, I gave up after one more walk. I suspect the person who created the CD would not appreciate knowing that at least one of their listeners heartily wished to strangle the speakers after fifteen more minutes of listening to their repetitive mantra-ish garbage. I'm pretty sure I was not the target audience for this idea.
Heavily abridged:
Bad thoughts make us feel bad. Bad feelings are depression, sadness, and anger. When you feel bad, ask yourself what you're thinking and stop having those thoughts. Bad thoughts attract bad experiences. Good thoughts attract good things. So when you think good things--good things are going to happen to you and your dreams will true. That's the way the universe works. You are a magnet for sucess and money.
Well, God love her, last week, Mom caught me on a bad day and asked me if I'd finished listening to the whole CD. I cannot tell a lie, but neither can I hurt her. So I danced around it. Said something about having trouble concentrating on it. That was sort of, vaguely, the truth. She replied, "I didn't think so. If you had, then this wouldn't be bothering you so much." She went on about how much better her life has been since she heard about it on Oprah.
She's decided to buy me a copy of the damnable book as she's just sure that I need to read this book and that once I do all my troubles will be over.
Like hers are? Holy cow. Do not even go there . . .
I am such a wimp. Why can I not tell her that I find the entire law of attraction offensive spiritually and annoying intellectually? Probably because I don't want to take away from her feelings of well-being and maybe because she doesn't have much else at the moment.
So I guess I'll accept the book and maybe I can hold my nose and read it through without gagging. There will apparently be a test. It's a shame one can't puree books and drink them in milkshakes like one can pills or lima beans.
3 comments:
So, unless I'm missing something, your Mom and yourself have differing theological viewpoints, then? Does that affect your relationship? Is it difficult at times to reconcile your faith with that of your Mom?
I'm genuinely curious, since in my experience, a person's faith is usually predicated on that of their parents?
If I'm being intrusive here, Mary, please disregard my questions; I have no wish to tread on sensitive ground.
You're not being intrusive Scotty. I'm the one who made the issue public.
As for the spiritual differences between my mother and I? My standard reply (you're not the first to ask): I was raised by hippies and I rebelled.
Mom's inclined to embrace the newest spiritual ideas as they come along. She sort of throws them in with her Christian faith and mixes them up together. She goes to church, is an active member of the choir (she's the head alto--has an amazing voice), attends sunday school, and runs the church thrift store. She took all five of us, but I'm the only one it "took" with.
It does sometimes create tensions between us, when I'm clearly not embracing her newest mix. She's generally pretty good about dropping it, though she grumbles about me being closed minded.
Thanks for that, Mary.
:-)
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