both/and he's a jerk and you're better off without him I appreciate the sentiment and know you say it in love but it also minimizes my pain and sorrow and anguish I'm better off without evangelical christianity too but the long brutal journey to get to the other side was full of loss and grief and heartbreak
Marla, this was powerful. I really appreciated how this poem compares the grief process to leaving evangelicalism to the grief process of a marriage ending---holding space for the feelings of heartbreak at the good things that were lost and for the feelings of saying goodbye to the toxic parts of a previous situation. I've been struck by how many break-up songs speak to me on this whole new level since my deconstruction: I've been singing through Olivia Rodrigo's Sour and Taylor Swift's Reputation throughout the process of stepping away from evangelicalism. Peace on the both/and grief journey!
Marla, this was powerful. I really appreciated how this poem compares the grief process to leaving evangelicalism to the grief process of a marriage ending---holding space for the feelings of heartbreak at the good things that were lost and for the feelings of saying goodbye to the toxic parts of a previous situation. I've been struck by how many break-up songs speak to me on this whole new level since my deconstruction: I've been singing through Olivia Rodrigo's Sour and Taylor Swift's Reputation throughout the process of stepping away from evangelicalism. Peace on the both/and grief journey!