A Possible Question

Yes, I suppose that a question that could reasonably be framed might be whether the Mrs. Warren who lived next door to great-grandmother in Carlsbad and is occasionally mentioned in the diaries is related to the Stephen Warren who married cousin Vanessa. I actually have no idea. I don't think that Stephen was the boyfriend she brought to the family get-together at Aunt Cindy's house that time so I don't think I ever met him and, anyway, it's not like it matters to anyone on the planet now. I really couldn't care less about the obnoxious Butterfields because I always seem to be returning their mail for some reason. The Butterfields really do have a lot of baggage strewn all over the place. But, like the song says, "go get it yourself at the baggage claim."

Family Issues

You obviously are either not related to us because if you were really "in" our family you would realize that nobody takes the Butterfields at all seriously. Everything that Art and Anita say is so ridiculous and patently false or misleading that everyone just sort of listens to them and then lets whatever they say go out the other ear because obviously they don't know what they are talking about. Oh, did I say that? Well, I can only say what is true or rather what I heard my parents say. However, we are really not interested in picking a fight with them, trying to keep peace within the family, so we just shrug it off like water off a duck's back. That is how it is with a lot of relatives, not only the Butterfields, and even some people to whom I am not related, but anyway, that is how it is in America when you have the crackpot Butterfields in your family tree.

Out of deference to the cousins, we can't really say publicly what we think about the Butterfields because after all it is their parents who are so bizarre. However, we know full well that while we were out of the country, the Butterfields were waging some sort of war in California, and Grandma Calkins, who always was very vocal about every little thing, was not very happy about it. However, I don't know any details. I really don't understand that but anyway nobody cares what the Butterfields think about anything, them always obsessing on weird details and going off on tangents about angels. I imagine that it probably wasn't all Grandma's fault.

Hostilities

I was rather surprised to hear that my Aunt Anita and Uncle Art so despise that they actually cursed me and go around saying that I practice magic and witchcraft. Most of these allegations stem from the fact that during the year that we were on furlough, when I was 12 years old, and visiting our grandparents who rented the apartment next door to the Butterfields, I was watching on television programs that my cousins were not allowed to see, and even invited the Butterfield cousins to come over and watch with us such programs as "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie," TV sitcom featured those blonde bewigged actress-witches Elizabeth Montgomery and Barbara Eden. The magical ladies of television imagine that just by a nod of a head or a wrinkle of the nose they can wreak all kinds of mischief without ever having to actually do anything. Things just magically appear to the characters and they frequently travel through time and space to experience whimsical and fantastical adventures. Of course, this is ridiculous. Nobody with half a brain in head would take that stuff seriously. I certainly never did. It has been a long time since high school when I read the "Satan Seller" which is full of lies but still I think says something about the evils of witchcraft and about what those things can do to distort the minds of sick persons like Mike Warnke as well as other books giving a Christian perspective on these matters which I did not have earlier when I was only 12 years old. I do think that Aunt Anita actually does have a certain valid point to make in reminding everyone that witchcraft actually is an evil thing and that humorous treatments of the subject only serve to camouflage the underlying evil. Still, I think it is a ridiculous amount of overkill for Art and Anita to go around trashing me all over the place. It makes it hard for us to take them seriously when the Butterfields say such ridiculously outlandish things and go around bombarding me with such patently false accusations. I mean, really, we all heard about Uncle Art's rants against art and we all know that he was only talking about cousin Ralph. That had nothing to do with me. After all, it was only cousin Ralph who was gay and also a talented artist so sadly Ralph fell into stereotype hell. I was sorry to hear it but anyway lots of artists are not gay so just ranting about art accomplishes nothing.

Spencer

I do remember that my sister, while living in Missouri, was good friends with Melody Spencer, whose family were missionaries in Nicaragua. While on furlough in the U.S., someone at school slipped LSD into Melody's Thermos during the lunch hour and she tripped out. We all heard this story. I remember my sister saying that Melody now lives in Pennsylvania, a place of which I know nothing. It just goes to show how wicked these high school people can be, and how much reason there is to be afraid of pretty much everyone that one does not know, especially strangers. I really don't know Melody. I only remember my sister saying something about her. But like all of my sister's friends, there would be no reason for me to trust them or tell them anything of a confidential nature because they are probably already owned by her. She has a real knack for buying off people who used to be my friends, but anyway, to me they are only strangers.

The Wicked Don Triplett

Yes, don't we all know that Don Triplett (MK-Nicaragua) is now a missionary in El Salvador? Wouldn't an MK transfer from Nicaragua need to learn a few things that were never understood during his pathetically worthless and terrible upbringing in the impoverished and politically turbulent State of Nicaragua? Obviously no MK-El Salvador with any brains in head would want to transfer the other way around, into that horrid pestiferous disgusting place known as Nicaragua. Personally I never want to hear another word about Nicaragua the rest of my life and I think that the wicked Tripletts should be thrown out on their ears for even suggesting such a ridiculous thing. I already have experienced more than my share of mission trips to last a lifetime during my short childhood years so I don't need those ignorant Nicaragua dogs trying to tell me what's what. I already know a lot more than you might think, not that it would matter. It's just that I'm not that dumb. I realize that Castle Ministries is a clever way to introduce the Europeanization of America. One would think that Don would be ashamed of his wickedly subversive ministry but apparently not.

Out Of Luck

I am just out of luck. If God can't bless me unless I gave a certain amount of money 20 or 30 years ago, and I did not have the money to give oh so many years ago or sent it somewhere else or did not record the cash amounts that went into the offering bag, then I can never ever in this lifetime ever hope to get into a "position" of blessing as dictated by the legalistic financial requirements of the Christian Life Center Country Club or whatever it is. Thus there is no reason for me to expect those legalistic-to-the-penny judges of the Christian Life Center Country Club to ever reverse their universal condemnation of my existence on this planet. I will never in a million be able to satisfy their exacting monetary requirements and thus I really don't care anymore what those obnoxious people think about me anyway. It would be futile for me to expect a miracle from God when I am utterly unworthy and will remain so for the foreseeable short-term future as far as I can tell as long as I would have to labor under and be suffocated by their stifling requirements. Thus, I am removing myself from their jurisdiction and thus avoiding them entirely so that I can still possibly have some semblance of a life even if a lonely one.

Mock

It was my sister who dated Steve Mock the year that she attended SCC. Steve might have been an MK-Mexico although I really don't remember. I think they appeared together in a production of a Shakespeare play during the spring semester. Other than that I don't remember remember anything about Steve other than he dated my sister for a short time. I don't remember ever talking to him, just heard something about him.

In a different vein, the only thing I remember is that in high school we read, "To Kill A Mockingbird," the Southern Gothic novel by Harper Lee that is full of racial issues. This novel is a standard of American literature, as is Mark Twain's "Puddnhead Wilson," which we also read in high school. Both of these books deal with racism from a U.S. viewpoint. Racism in Central America is different kettle of fish.

Jack Nicholson starred in a movie that I never saw, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." I am trying to remember if we read this book in class or only heard book reports about it. Perhaps a mockingbird  atheist lacking rock music talent could end up in a mental ward where order is demanded by the iron-fisted Nurse Ratchett. Those found not in compliance with the dictatorship of Nurse Ratchett will be lobotomized, meaning that their brains are split in half. With the internal connections severed they will no longer function very well because parts of their brain are no longer trading information.

As they say, united we stand, divided we fall. Divide and conquer. Cut off your nose to spite your face and see what happens.