The rythms of the liturgy fall upon my deaf
ears and crash
against my stony heart year after year, until His word is
beaten into the fiber of my being, and piece by piece, tiny chip by tiny chip, the Old Man in me dies, and a new man is raised to life in His likeness.
In school environments where buttocks
beating is key to student management and discipline, all the myriad lesser insults to which children are prey such as
ear twisting, cheek squeezing, finger jabbing, arm grabbing, slamming
against the wall and general manhandling are apt to pass unchronicled and unrecognized for what they really are.