Sharing my Story to Heal the Broken Child - The Sin of Chewing Gum

 

The following incident happened to me in one of the four long “endless” years I attended St. Michael’s Elementary School in East New York.  I’m not sure which nun inflicted this next bit of humiliation on me, but since I remember - till this day, 6 decades later - my deep feelings of shame and embarrassment, something tells me it very likely might have been the work of Sr. Christiana or Sr. Delores Theresa.

I was caught chewing gum in class which was apparently considered a really terrible sin because the punishment inflicted on me just about destroyed any of my remaining self-esteem. I was told to stand up at the side of my desk, remove the gum from my mouth and push into my hair right smack above my forehead. Sister said she wanted it to be plainly visible so everyone could see that I had sinned (I may have paraphrased the word sinned but you get my drift) and, possibly it might deter my classmates and other students at St. Michael’s Elementary School from committing such a heinous crime. I had to continue my day, walking around school with this “scarlet letter” hanging prominently from my bangs. I remember that I held my head down in shame and wished I could disappear into the floor. I remember my feelings of mortification vividly; and I remember that this particular day never seemed to end.

When I got home from school I uttered a quick, “Hi” as I ran past my Mom and up to my bedroom.  I grabbed my Mickey Mouse hat from the top of my dresser and pulled the cap down over the front of my forehead.  I desperately wanted to cover the gum, my terrible “sin”, and my shame and embarrassment. I went downstairs, got a drink from the refrigerator and sat at the dining room table to do my homework. After awhile my mother noticed I hadn’t removed the Mickey Mouse ears.  Eventually she questioned my atypical behavior with one simple sentence,  

  “Why are you wearing that silly hat all afternoon?” I immediately burst into tears. The floodgates opened and I was sobbing.  Not knowing how she would react, I told her of my terrible crime. “I was chewing gum”, I said between my sobs “and Sister made me stick the gum into my hair.” When I pulled off my cap to show her, she opened the nearby kitchen drawer, pulled out a scissor and quickly snipped out the gum.  In one beautiful, glorious second, my mother removed my humiliation, absolved me from my sin and restored me to wholeness. 

She may have hugged me too.