Mother-Father-God was primarily focused story-wise on Christian-science but it had a lot of layers to it that added a lot of depth. The heart of the essay to me were the relationships of the story. There were the abusive relationships, the familial relationships, the relationships with the church. She talked about her own relationships and the relationships of other people. There was also a depth of history in the story that made it about more than just Gerard.

Last class we talked about what someone can gain from reading about someone else’s life. I was less sure about what I was gaining from reading this essay than I was about the last essay. The subject of Christian-science was the seemingly overarching plotline of this essay while the relationships were what it was “about.” I really see how Gerard created interest on this subject and wove the two ideas together seamlessly but I’m not quite sure how to answer that question of what I got from this essay about her life. Probably most texts are limited in people who can understand something deeper from them and the most lasting of stories are the ones that the most people can relate to and find a deeper meaning in but I wonder if non-fiction is even more limited than fiction. Sometimes when she was discussing things, because they were real, I had a harder time relating to them, like Christian-science. In the story it was a concept that was real and therefore unbending in its meaning. Had it been a fictional story I would have been much more likely to come up with some sort of deeper meaning that things represent because it feels more metaphorical and open for interpretation if it’s made up.  That could just be a limitation on my part.

In comparison to the first essay of the book, it felt like a completely different version of her life. I was wondering about the two timelines of the stories as I was reading this one.

The most compelling part of the story for me was the mother’s job with abuse victims and with the police force.