just dropped the bomb on my right wing devout catholic parents that I'm now employed with one of the largest porn companies in the world.
(no im not "talent", sadly.. not built like halx:P.. im in sales
) aside from the startling mix of strangely dressed people and businessmen, and the porn on open display on computer screens throughout the office, the job is actually pretty normal. It's an office like any other.. just with a bit more "color". after a couple years in mainstream cubicle hell, i vowed never to work in an office again. dunno how you guys do it. lifes to short to sit in a cube. but ive actually found an "office" job that fits my style.. the tech behind the porn is a rapidly changing industry, more than enough to keep me challenged and interested, its actually tons of fun. never been big on porn really, but it definately makes for a more interesting office experience to say the least.
but.. i got the impression my parents were kind of upset when i told them.. mabye it was when my dad likened my profession to that of a thug in the mafia.. or mabye it was when my mom described pornography as despicable. then she started using many other profoundly bad, scripture-esque words to describe the people i work with.. people she has never met. very biblical words like wicked, vile, evil, trecherous and a few i cant recall at the moment. i never quite realized the monumental divide between the values of my parents, and my own until now. my parents and I really do reside in totally different, totally opposed realites. what was most distrubing was how they *instantly* labeled anyone who works in the industry as evil. this seems to be a recurring problem i run into with many suburban christians.. they use their scriptures as a template to characterize all people and all situations, never entertaining the notion that there are lessons in life to learn wich were not described and written about in the bible. if your values arent aligned with the good, the label is applied and you are marked as evil. you are now a caricature in their mind, embodying all the stereotypical components of evil described in the bible.. they cannot see humanity in you at all. compassion and understanding is not applicable to you anymore. you're an ememy of god.
i dont for a second beleive everything is all roses in the industry i work in. theres definately some shadiness, definately some bad people. but.. i have yet to find a place where there that does not exist.
then they started spouting off things like, 'porn is more addicting than crack... its another addiction and im helping to spread it, im hurting people etc, etc'. it was obvious this an issue theyve thought long and hard yet completely failed to understand. oh well, should make for an interesting christmas vacation when the whole family will be together.
they couldnt understand how i could not be ashamed of myself and of what i do. i just dont get it.. i really dont. to me, if someone feels ashamed to know me or interact with me based on what i do, i look at that as a flaw in their character not mine. to me, that kind of attitude is always a sign of someone who has had a very limited life experience.
im kind of regretting telling them now, but something like that becomes kind of hard to lie about. all in all my parents are good people and i respect them enough not to lie to them if i can help it. i would have had to construct and maintain a very big deception to hide it from them for long. it was more for their sake that i considered lying about my job, than for mine. i have no problem with what i do, but i know they will be spending a good deal of time now thinking about where they "failed as parents". my mom is probably doing double time on the rosary as we speak. damn if its one thing catholics are good at, its laying a guilt trip down on their kids. theyve got it down to a science
ahh its getting late.. ill stop ranting. just needed to vent.