Richard's a very hands-on learner, so of course he would never just take my word for it that Scientology is ... how can I put this nicely? ... deranged childish bulls*** . No, he had to stop at one of our friendly neighborhood recruiting booths and get a Free Stress Test! They attached him to one of those handy little E-meters (a galvanic skin response meter with a copyright, basically) and asked him a few questions about his family, friends, job, etc. (He says he showed high stress levels only on "Israel" and "work", which is surprising). Then they sold him a $7 copy of Dianetics, since he was unaware that I have a used $1.35 copy lurking around here somewhere, and sent him home with an invitation to attend "church", or whatever, on Sunday. Naturally he doesn't want to do that, but like any curious person he wants to read the book and see if there's anything to all this Tom Cruise/Kirstie Alley/girl from Dawson's Creek business.
Then he watched a few Scientology videos on YouTube and went to bed saying, "God, what a buncha weirdos..."
Now, I have nothing against Scientologists. They seem quite friendly, intelligent, and sincere. And they have some legitimate ideas about the flaws in psychology: We are an over-medicated society. My problem lies with the fact that they have condemned an entire science even though the centerpiece of their religion, Dianetics, is just watered-down Freudian psychoanalysis with a lie detector thrown in! Psychoanalysis isn't even soft science, fer crying out loud; it's just making sh** up as you go along!
If Bruno Bettelheim wants to say that "Jack and the Beanstalk" is a story about premature ejaculation, who's to stop him? If Freud wants to say that women's sexual problems begin in the nose, who's to stop him? If L. Ron Hubbard wants to say that we all have to overcome the psychic trauma of our past lives as molluscs, who's to stop him?
In other news: Our sofa-bed wasn't delivered yesterday because the truck was full (big shock), so we're still tip-toeing over and around piles of books.
IF the the couch actually gets here today, I'll probably have less than half a day to put the entire condo back in shape before we drive out-of-town tomorrow morning to pick up the kids. And if it doesn't get delivered today, I'll be waiting around here all day Friday while Richard picks up the kids all by his lonesome. Either way, this sucks.
This sort of thing happened has happened to us before. A couple years ago, when our bug-phobic upstairs neighbors insisted the whole building be sprayed because of one or two rather cute li'l sowbugs, we had to move all our furniture to the center of our apartment one day before my family was due to arrive for a visit.
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6 comments:
You gotta give Doug credit for "walking a mile in their moccasins" before he condemns someone.
He SHOULD learn to trust us where whackjobs are concerned though. ;)
Was I a mullusc once? Perhaps that explains all my problems...Always pining for the sea, etc.
Supposedly we all have evolutionary memories of being clams, and only a gazillion dollars' worth of auditing will help us overcome the pain...
Oh God, don't tell your Dad this or he'll start his "clam mating call"!
Hmmmmm my theory is that there are people who could look at a white wall and see porno.
It's in THEIR minds.
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