It’s easy to blame the nuns. Easy but unfair.
As a young Catholic, I learned 3 things: 1.) God is watching. 2.) There’s this thing called a clip-on tie that doesn’t require any tying. You just hide the nubbin corners behind your shirt collar and fold the metal clasp against your Adam’s Apple. Plus, your friends will give you a dollar to wear one of yours when they’ve forgotten their own to avoid detention. So keep a supply in your locker. 3.) You’re no better than anyone else.
Number 3 stuck. When a new idea arrives in my head, my first thought is, “That’s dumb.” Also, “Crap, we’re not wearing a tie.” Then I remember that I’m 38 and not in school anymore.
I am 38, if only in theory. It’s necessary to occasionally remind myself that I’m not the dumb guy in the room, or the 10-year-old who stood with his nose against the chalk board for 30 minutes. It’s my wife’s job to remind me (along with earning the bulk of our income. Occasionally I’ll assert myself, stand in the middle of our home and announce, “I paid for slightly less than one half of all of this.” THAT shows her).
Unfortunately, I can’t carry my wife around all day, and must occasionally remind myself. You’re not the dumb guy in the room, even if Sr. Dolores said so.
