On bad advice & good mentors
Today, I realized yet again that I must one day write my memoir, even if no one will ever read it. Given my fascinatingly strange coming out story, I believe I have something to offer about the gay coming out experience as a metaphor for self-discovery, individuation.
I fear, however, that some who might otherwise warm to my story would reject it because of one element, the political aspect of my journey. But, that is only one ingredient in the strange mix of my experiences.
The real strangeness of my own experience has nothing to do with my politics, but instead that my coming out story, like many good movies, has a villain who seems drawn from central casting, an arrogant man in perfectly tailored suits who, in the guise of helping me, gave me nothing but bad advice. And he happened to be gay.
My thought today was on the importance of mentors in our lives which is of course related to the subject of my doctoral dissertation, how the goddess Athena serves as a mentor to nearly all the Greek heroes who achieve success in their endeavors.
She reminds us of the importance of good guidance as we strive, struggle even, to realize our goals. Perhaps, more on this anon. My own story shows that bad advice often delays the realization of those goals.
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I’ve not seen anything this cluelessly and disingenuously egotistical in quite some time. I can’t wait not to read the chapter in your “memoir” thats “like a good movie.”
Oy.
Comment by geroge — March 21, 2009 @ 5:38 pm - March 21, 2009
Geroge, since you’re going to offer a mean-spirited comment the least you could do is define what you mean. But, then again that might be asking too much since you missed the point of my simile, “like a good movie.”
I was not saying that my life was like a good movie, but that it had one element like a good movie, a villain out of central casting.
Comment by GayPatriotWest — March 21, 2009 @ 5:46 pm - March 21, 2009
“I’ll buy that for a dollar!!”
Well the blog part of your story has one aspect of a porn film. George, there, represents a huge dick.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — March 21, 2009 @ 10:52 pm - March 21, 2009
Personally, I find your fascination with Athena intriguing. I’d prefer Striberg, Tyr, or St. Michael as a mentor to her. I blame that school upriver…
Comment by Kevin — March 22, 2009 @ 3:09 pm - March 22, 2009
#1 – “I’ve not seen anything this cluelessly and disingenuously egotistical in quite some time.”
Unless you count the time this morning when you looked in the mirror.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — March 23, 2009 @ 5:48 pm - March 23, 2009