Lest Ye Be Judged

Man, the things we overlook for the sake of friendship.



I was waiting to go to lunch today with Stella, and when I walked by her office she was on the phone. The only thing I heard of the conversation as I breezed past on my way to the printer was: "Marilyn MANSON?? Oh, no."



The conversation must have lasted a good 45 minutes, and then Stella came into my office.



"What was THAT?" I asked her.



"Oh, one of my friend's nieces is in a cult," she said.



"What?" (I'm thinking Moonies, or those comet-worshipping guys from a few years back...)



"Yeah--she's wearing all these 'goth' clothes, and lots of black. and all kinds of piercings, and one of the kids she hangs out with worships the Columbine people....and they're all listening to Marilyn Manson..."



Thinks Gladys: Ooooookaaaaaaay.

Says Gladys: "Which clearly proves that someone didn't do their homework, since the Columbine kids didn't listen to Marilyn Manson..."



"Anyway, her mother's worried sick--and what in the world is (name of boarding school the girl attends)doing, anyway, not looking after her?"



Thinks Gladys: Oh, I dunno...maybe "not making mountains out of molehills"?

Says Gladys: "Yeah, that school puts a lot of emphasis on 'exploring your personality' and stuff like that...."



Further conversation on the way to lunch revealed the following "facts":



--Wicca is now "a cult".

--Piercings are "freakish."

--All Wiccans and/or Goths are doomed to be drug addicts who will never be accepted by society.

--It's bad to be on the fringes of society.

--People who haven't tried to kill themselves shouldn't hang out with people who have. Logically, this reduces to "people who have tried to kill themselves should keep to their own kind." (Particularly ironic since it's coming from an African-American woman.)

--She'll never get a job. Wiccans and Goths never get jobs.

--Wiccans and Goths never choose their lifestyle. They're all "sucked into that life".



Finally, standing at the counter, there was one too many negative Wiccan comments for poor lil' ol' Gladys to stand. (Now, you all have easy access to my stance on Wicca and suchlike--hey, if you believe it, that's your right, but to me it's a little too airy and happy and conveniently put-together to constitute the kind of real heavy-duty belief system I can get behind. But:)



"It's not a death sentence, you know. One of my best friends is a Wiccan."

"Yeah, but your friend has a job and everything, right?"

"Absolutely."

"So she waited til she was old enough to make her own choices. And she never hung around with a bunch of people who tried to commit suicide or anything."

"Actually, that was always HER department, not her friends. And she was a Wiccan from the time she was really young, even if she didn't have a name for it." Then as an afterthought: "And that WASN'T why she tried to kill herself, either."



Stella, by the way, was also half of the "blogging is a cry for help" conversation from several months ago. Damn, it must be nice to be one of the few normal people among all the nasty lil' freaks....



As for me, I'll happily spend my pierced, jobless, drug-addicted life out here on the fringes, being a drain on society. No, I'm not a Wiccan or a Goth--I'm something even worse, if anyone knew enough to appreciate it. I don't need a group of like-minded freaks to allow me to be who I am (though one like-minded freak would be nice)...and the best part of it all is, since there's no name for my particular belief system, there's nothing for anyone to stereotype, and so I can fly quite nicely under their radar.



Meanwhile, a shout-out to poor little Wiccan/Goth/Manson fan Tracy:



Don't drink the Kool-Aid.

Not even the organic vegan elixir-style Kool-Aid.

Not even if it's served in an enormous jewel-encrusted skull goblet.