Ferrandino

The Indoctrination

“Must be getting early, the clocks are running late”

-Jerry Garcia, “Touch of Grey”

“Stockholm Syndrome is a psychological response sometimes seen in abducted hostages, in which the hostage shows signs of loyalty to the hostage taker, regardless of the danger or risk in which they have been placed”.

-Wikipedia

There was never any innocence; not even at the beginning. The slaughterhouse was visible to all of us, the enemy was within, and choice fell to each individual; try to go around, or risk going in. I just said the slaughterhouse was visible, and I stand by that, but others, unable to push past denial, still cleaved to the delusion that the structure really was the ingenuously named “James River Conference Center”

shards of vision poetically rendered

Ah, the James River, sylvan ribbon winding from the forests of the Appalachians to the briny Chesapeake Bay; waterway for historic Jamestown, Va., and vital commercial thoroughfare for early colonial settlement.

Wait, for all is not as it appears. The vision is fragmented, as though viewed through the myriad reflections of a disco globe, or a broken mirror. Evocative appellation aside, the metal façade may have shielded us from viewing the horrors within, but I wasn’t fooled.

Why was I here? More specifically, why was I here, on a rare Saturday in which I had no scheduled craft show, and which happened to coincide with the last home game dear old alma mater Washington & Lee would play this year, and which would be my only chance to see them play this year?

The obvious answer is that I’m just bleeping nuts, but I’m not going to take all the heat on this. I’m sticking to my claim that I was coerced, forced, against every fiber of my being (I have a rather fibrous being), into attending a motivational convention, something I would never do of my own free will.

The only excuse/explanation/rationalization I can tender for my presence at this “event” is that it was a requirement for my continued employment with the huge conglomerate that sponsored the whole mess. So much for free will, which still requires housing, food, and clothing, and something to pay for it all.