The open war that raged outside our home was carried on more intensely inside our domestic walls intended otherwise to nurture little ones in an atmosphere of love. Amidst the surrounding explosive cultural and political atmosphere, in our home, these fires were fueled further by the abuse of alcohol destroying from within what was not being injured from without. This battle raged for years through my childhood and into adolescence until my parents divorced and my siblings were separated from one another. It seemed an act of grace which spared me from being officially orphaned and instead sent me away to an unusual boarding school founded by the The [[Order of the Holy Cross]], the first Protestant monastic community to operate in the United States. It was here that I fell in love with learning while being systematically exposed to the idea of Gods love as a guiding force in the world. Some of these monks were very highly educated, and I did not appreciate at the time how atypical it was for them to represent some of the most progressive forces for political transformation. | The open war that raged outside our home was carried on more intensely inside our domestic walls intended otherwise to nurture little ones in an atmosphere of love. Amidst the surrounding explosive cultural and political atmosphere, in our home, these fires were fueled further by the abuse of alcohol destroying from within what was not being injured from without. This battle raged for years through my childhood and into adolescence until my parents divorced and my siblings were separated from one another. It seemed an act of grace which spared me from being officially orphaned and instead sent me away to an unusual boarding school founded by the The [[Order of the Holy Cross]], the first Protestant monastic community to operate in the United States. It was here that I fell in love with learning while being systematically exposed to the idea of Gods love as a guiding force in the world. Some of these monks were very highly educated, and I did not appreciate at the time how atypical it was for them to represent some of the most progressive forces for political transformation. |