first confession by frank o'conner

this, for me, was another story full of symbolisms. maybe stories often have a lot of symbols that stand for realities in life and some vague imageries that would seldom flash through our minds but would leave us in a trance or in search of something that we don't exactly know.

i think it's normal the way the priest acted toward the child. the people in ireland may be traditionalists, especially those who belong to the religious order, as some might expect. but then again, this was a priest, and being one involved knowing how to deal with people the right way. i think the priest leveled with the child. this was the way to earn his trust so he would open up to him. and the boy's thoughts, in their unabashed nakedness, would then be revealed to him. and the priest used those thoughts to determine the right way to know the child, and eventually, to discern the proper way by which he should be dealt with.

the priest found success in trying to find out what the boy's thoughts were, what his confession was centered on. apparently, the priest was cool, but nevertheless, as i wrote earlier, he was still a priest, and his work was mainly to lead others to the right path. and that he did in the way which he thought was most suitable for the boy.

i like this story. i think the boy, who was probably already much, much older when he wrote this account, remembered the priest with fondness. it was so nice of the priest to be gentle and tender with the boy, and i think the boy did appreciate that. he even remembered to write about it after lots of years! well, very very pleasant memories seep into our consciousness and almost never slips out of its cracks despite the eminent passage of time.