Audience - Shadowheart

[holyspirits]

Comments

[holyspirits]

Not necessarily.

We present you with options. What we can offer, and what it takes to get it. You still decide whether you think that's worth it.

[sacredpath]

Right, but at the end, it's still someone else's opinion on whether my identity and beliefs are sufficient to be considered redeemed.

[holyspirits]

Perhaps.

But it's normal for any community to have some rules, if you wish to be a part of it. And the expectation that you be kind, the trust that you won't harm others, are very simple.

They have more to do with how you treat others than what you believe, or believe about yourself.

[sacredpath]

And yet, there's a difference between a community having rules everyone has to abide by and an evaluation. We're not being told to get along and not make waves, we're being told to demonstrate some sort of quality and be judged for it or found lacking.

[holyspirits]

Is there a difference? Job interviews, school requirements, dating before marriage...

Life was full of the same kinds of evaluations. I would even say that their requirements were harsher.

[sacredpath]

Well, yes. The requirements of my evaluations were harsh.

I guess what I don't know about is deciding not to define myself by what I was taught by the Sharrans, but having to follow someone else's code of conduct. That's all.

[holyspirits]

That makes sense to me.

It's confusing to be dropped into a set of expectations before you have a chance to form your own opinions about them, or the one enacting them. [ but unfortunately they just kind of finish that thought with a shrug. it is what it is... ]

[sacredpath]

Right, I know.

[including that she knows it's not like she can really protest, if she wants a chance to go back, she doesn't have much choice to go along.]

[holyspirits]

I know exactly what that's like.

But I think that you'll figure it out.

[sacredpath]

I'll try, then.

[frees you from week 0]