In an ocean of feelings, I am a non-swimmer.

THE HYPHENATED MAN

I realized as I was writing that I was avoiding something about me. It was that I grew up in a home where my father was an alcoholic. We were not allowed to talk at the table and no one could invite anyone into our home. I did not learn the social graces. As a result of being raised in an alcoholic home, I am very much out of touch with my feelings.

In an ocean of feelings, I am a non-swimmer.

I am a Mexican-American
A retired Seventh-Day Adventist Minister
A Bi-lingual person.
A married/divorced man
A religious/no longer religious man
I am not an Agnostic, not an Atheist
These terms carry too much baggage.
Therefore, I word myself as a non-theist.
A borrowed self-designation that is in a contant state of
flux.
I grew up in a Chicago barrio,
Right next to a Jewish ghetto
I grew up wanting to be Jewish
As a boy, I was a Sabbath-goi
Doing the required chores in the synagogue that
orthodox Jew could not.
I became a lover of Jewish tradition and customs.
An advantage of being a hyphenatged man is that
you can choose to live on either side of the hyphen.
At times, I am very American; at others I feel feel
`very Mexican.