Catch-22 Controls Your Life. You Cannot Escape This Culture.
A Story in the West Side Church Series--See the full series at https://forthtellinginnovation.substack.com/t/west-side-church-stories.
Catch-22 Controls Your Life. You Cannot Escape This Culture.
The Portland community in the west end of Louisville, KY during the 1970s was a loose analogy of the Catch-22 concept in the novel by Joseph Heller, first published in 1961.
The Catch-22 concept was no matter how many Korean War bombing missions an airman flew, if you approached the maximum number of missions that would allow you to go home, the number of missions required increased. And,there were other aspects to Catch-22.
You could not escape the war theater.
In Portland the idea was that no matter how hard people tried, no matter how many life abilities and resources they developed, they could not escape the Portland community culture.
The Catch-22 principle stopped your escape.
It did not mean the attempted escapee lived in Portland all their lives. Just that wherever they lived they were caught up in the cultural mandates of the Portland culture.
They could not escape culture that wrote their life script.
Alice and Beth
The script for many teenagers in the Portland community involved dropping out of school as soon as possible. I recently found notes I made in 1972 when talking with the teenagers who attended our church about why they wanted to drop out.
They disliked school—particularly the teachers—and they could not do the class work. They wanted to get married, go to work, go into military service, get pregnant, be independent of parents, or if they stayed in their home keep younger brothers and sisters so their mother could work.
During my four-and-one-half years at West Side Church five decades ago, I came to know well two teenage girls who were best friends. The dropout syndrome was not part of their anticipated life script.
They were extremely smart. Nothing but “A”s on their report cards.
They were deeply committed to the church and were continually growing in their faith. They were involved in many church and community ministries.
They also came from dysfunctional, matriarchal households, and were the only ones in their family involved in church. If they could not attend church activities, it was often because of some type of uproar in their family.
A few times I tried to insert myself into their family situations, but it was hard for my help to be accepted.
Both girls were very nice girls in the best sense of this idea. Many boyfriend options in the Portland community were not-so-nice boys. Beth and Alice did very little—if any—dating during high school.
College Offers
During their high school senior year, both girls received college scholarship offers. Not just the typical scholarships, but fully paid college education. Alice’s offer was out-of-town, and it included living expenses. Beth’s was a local school to which she could commute.
No one in either of their families had gone to college. Their parents had never encouraged it. They just assumed the girls would get a job, get married, and start having children.
That was the expected Portland community way. What made these girls feel like they were different?
I had multiple conversations with them about accepting the scholarships and the opportunities these would afford them. Against the desires of their parents—particularly their mothers—both girls accepted their scholarships.
When it came time for Alice to move to her college community, her parents would not help her make the transition. She had to find friends who would help her.
They were both excited about the new world that would become part of their life.
Catch-22 Stopped Their Escape
Even during their first semester the girls experienced some cracks in their resolve to escape the Portland culture.
They had great personalities and attractive appearances. They experienced in college a new class of boys who were pleasant, persuasive, and knew how to invite vulnerable girls into a relationship.
Alice was blown away by the attention she received. Got deeply involved with a student, and by the end of the first year was married and pregnant. (Not necessarily in that order.)
Ultimately, she dropped out of school to raise her child, and never went back to college.
While Beth also had a college boyfriend, what pulled her back into the Portland culture was the economic needs of her family. They pressured her—since she still lived at home—to quit school and get a job to contribute financially to the household.
She followed their mandate.
In both cases, the Portland community culture’s Catch-22 won. There was no escaping even for these exceptional young women.