Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Do I Dishonor My Mother?

When I turned from my mother, I meant no disrespect, though she read my actions as such. I turned away in terror for her and for her family that was being consumed by the manipulations of a woman with lust in her heart for our father.

My father had always been a favorite with women, even enticing our staid school principal, a nun, to dance with him at Knights of Columbus dances. We were used to him and his baby sister serenading each other with love songs duets like, "That Old Black Magic," much to the delight of their mother and their spouses. These flirtations with females carried on to his consistent compliments about the talents and beauty of his five daughters. When his girls began reaching puberty, Daddy sank into the dark night of his soul.

When Daddy rose from his bed after two years in his own valley of darkness of deep depression, there was a woman waiting to take him into her arms. She seduced him with words of wonder about his religion, pretending that she was seeking enlightenment from our family. She was a lounge singer who could help him escape into his world of romance where there were no noisy children, as she had given her small children away.

My mother was so anxious that she do nothing to keep a convert from entering the church that she turned a blind eye to what we could see was happening, but were powerless to stop.

As this woman drew our father further and further into her web, my brother and grandparents fell for her, too. My teen-aged brother welcomed the warm arms of a woman who would spend her unfulfilled lust for our father on him. My grandparents were so proud of their son's supposed spiritual conquest, that they became the woman's spiritual parents at baptism.

Our mother accepted all of this rather than fight for the faith of her family. We were her lambs, but she chose to embrace the wolf devouring us, rather than uphold the law of her religion. This was all done in the spirit of Christian kindness to those who are less than we are. What hubris this was on the parts of my parents and their parents! This woman had walked away from her own children, and now she was preying on us.

So began a parade through the family home of priestly and other perverts, drug dealers, prostitutes, and others who sought our souls. What could I do but walk away? Does this mean that I have dishonored my father and mother? How can one honor anyone who insists on dishonoring him or her self?