Turmagant

What does a man run on? What fuels us to keep doing good work? What drives us to promote the general welfare and spread civility?

For me, it's guilt.

There is that commonly shared idea, that pervasive myth, of the Catholic Guilt. I'm here to tell you that it is very real. It's a faith system based on the shame-inducing maxim "Just look at what you've done!" Pretty much everything you do is harmful in some way. Even being born is somehow a sin. And you have to go to church and speak to God or one of his representatives and tell them you are sorry for being such a screw up. You have to actually be sorry or else it doesn't count. Oh, they'll know if you are really sorry or not.

If you don't end up saying you are sorry, then you go to Hell. Forever. You think that's a cool place to go? Google it, then you'll know that it is most cetainly not a fun place to go.

It's a hard thing to deal with rationally as a child, so these ideas of sin and punishment soak into your personality. Youstay alert to make sure you aren't having any fun or doing something that might anger God, one of his representatives, or anyone else that can hurt you with office supplies or sporting goods.

Then you get older and relax and wonder why you didn't have more fun as a child.