I did not lose my job; God got me out of an untenable situation that I should have left years before, except that I was burdened with you guys' tuition, and could not serve my own call. I wish you had known me when I was young and fresh, and I wish I had lived in an era when it wasn't first impossible (til I was 22), and then weird and somewhat offensive, to be a young woman seeking ordination.

Live in your own reality, not my past. I got further than my mom, who never got past her interview with the bishop! If you allow your own vocation to be governed by "my tragic past," my tragic past is unredeemed for another generation. And I will smack you.