I say, “I want to create a shelter where men who have been traumatized by rape, can find help.” The next thing I hear, and it happens more often than not, is “Will you be able to take in sexual offenders?” My answer is “No, I am too close to a school.”
How often has it been, that I way one thing, and people hear something else? Am I not saying what I mean to say? Why don’t I just buy an old hotel and invite a bunch of former prostitutes to live there? No. that’s not what I said. People who were trapped in the sex trafficking trade ….
So I am learning two things. 1) I must choose my words wisely, 2) I must be sensitive to how other people hear me and correct them when I since they misunderstand. The problem is this is the very area that was damaged.
I laid out my plans to a pastor who I respect very much. He gave me a book on how to council sexual predators. A person who is bit by a dog, does not go around biting dogs. Well I had a friend who did that once. The dog never bit him back. But that’s another story.
Being victimized by a rapist does not make me a rapist. This is not a matter of fictitious zombies or vampires where once bitten one turns into a vampire or zombie. This is not like rabies where a dog bitten by a rabid dog becomes a rabid dog.
A person selected by a predator of any kind is young, innocent and naive. Easy and soft targets why work for the meal?
Everything has come together. I know what I said, I know what I meant, and I know what she heard to make her never talk to me again.
ceg