School Girl

        One evening when I was working my second job at Barnes and Noble, a woman approached and asked if I knew anything about the Jesuits? I told her I had graduated from a Jesuit college in Buffalo, New York!

        “Okay, so what did you learn about the Jesuits when you were there?”

        I thought about it for a while and then responded, “I guess what I learned from them is that my education was more important than they were – because I don’t recall them ever teaching me about themselves!”

        What the B&N customer was interested in was the Jesuit connection to enneagrams – the nine personality types. Understanding the personality types of ourselves and the people around us theoretically would help us function better and get closer to a peaceful world. Well I sure did not know that about the Jesuits’ involvement in all that – sounds kind of cultish. I looked up Jesuits and enneagrams in the company computer, and the customer and I went to the section of the store where a book about enneagrams, without the Jesuit connection, was located. The woman seemed happy enough.

        I was intrigued.

        Soon I purchased a book on the history of the Jesuits and read it. I was not going to be stupefied the next time someone asked what I knew about them! This particular book did not mention enneagrams at all, but much to my surprise, it confirmed the first statement I made to the customer.

        Jesuits are and always have been all about education. They aren’t interested so much in proselytizing as they are in getting people from all areas of the world to think for themselves and come to their own conclusions about religion. Over the centuries they have often been a thorn in the side of the Pope but the Jesuits persevered anyway - doing what they thought was most necessary – educating.

        Would that I had learned more from them at the time – but I was silly and not eager to grow up. I wonder which of the nine personalities that falls under?

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