abaya

I've taken some time away from this thread, because I wasn't sure what it had become. Last night it became a very limited discussion that I was no longer interested in participating in, and I thought the thread would dwindle from there.

Tonight it's something else... a more philosophical discussion that opens the topic back up a bit, though I'm still not sure what direction it's all heading in. Eh, maybe it doesn't need a direction.

I don't know what everyone else is getting out of this thread, but for me it's been invaluable to slice open a badly-healed wound and expose it to the public air. I don't know why that's so therapeutic, but it is. It's helped me to advance much further along that "timeline" that ratbastid mentioned... wherever that puts me, I don't know. Not on the other side, but certainly better than I was before this thread began.

Roachboy, maybe as a nerdy PhD student I'm inclined to academic analysis in general , but your analysis is compelling. I like to situate most every human behavior/thought in some kind of theory (established or novel), and you have helped me by situating my story in some kind of greater, if "tangled" understanding. Hope that makes sense.

Thanks also, ratbastid, for your recent thoughts. No, I don't need your "rescuing," but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate your words and intent all the same. You are right about pretty much everything, there. The only question I had was, when you said this: ... why did you use the word "victim," if that's the very concept you're trying to avoid? It's just a bit confusing, that's all.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran