The Thrill of the Chaste

Tonight I was privileged to meet Dawn Eden, author of The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On. I have been reading Dawn's blog off and on for several years, and her blog is where I first heard about her book. Although Dawn and I are the same age, we are in very different places in our lives, but reading descriptions and excerpts from her book struck a chord with me. Unlike Dawn, I was brought up in the Christian faith by my parents, specifically Lutheranism. However, I had my own struggles living the chaste life. My parents' marriage fell apart just as I started college, leaving my mother absorbed in her own problems and cynical about men. I have always had a messed-up relationship with my father; I don't know if it can ever be healed in this life. Everything I've learned about men, I've mostly had to learn through the patient tutelage of my husband. Despite troubled family relationships, I know I am responsible for everything I have done wrong; thanks be to God that Jesus took the punishment for all of my sins. This is just my long way of explaining my interest in her book despite thirteen and a half years as a happily married woman; due to my own past, I seek a deeper understanding of living a life of chastity when it is part of God's will for us. And as the mother of two young girls, I would like to be able to really be able to talk to my daughters as they go through adolescence and young adulthood, and say more than "Don't do it until marriage, because God says so."

Dawn spoke tonight at St. Therese Church in Garfield Heights, and was sponsored by Fr. John Valencheck and St. Rose Young Adult Group. I felt a little bit strange there, 'cause, well, I'm not Catholic. However, I know we share many common beliefs as Christians, including a belief that God's gift of sexual intimacy is only meant for marriage. And since I've read Dawn's blog for so long and had an interest in her book, I wanted to take this opportunity to meet her IRL. :)

I also got to meet local blogger Saint Kansas; both he and Dawn were very nice and welcoming. He worked with Dawn on the YouTube video you can watch here. I'm hoping I'll get to meet Saint Kansas (and his wife?) sometime again in this great city.

And let me give a shout-out to Lilac Rose, aka Susan B. I know I found St. Kansas' blog via hers, and I'm pretty sure her blog is how I found Dawn's. Someday I hope to meet her in person as well.

And for Dawn, Saint Kansas, and anyone else who stops in, here once again is the origin of my blog name! It's based on an online quiz which sadly is no longer available. However, you can read about it in this post and following comments at baldilock's place. Here's a summary of me: You are an SEDF--Sober Emotional Destructive Follower. This makes you an evil genius. You are extremely focused and difficult to distract from your tasks. With luck, you have learned to channel your energies into improving your intellect, rather than destroying the weak and unsuspecting.

Your friends may find you remote and a hard nut to crack. Few of your peers know you very well--even those you have known a long time--because you have expert control of the face you put forth to the world. You prefer to observe, calculate, discern and decide. Your decisions are final, and your desire to be right is impenetrable.

You are not to be messed with. You may explode.
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Since the above is all too accurate, I started calling myself the Evil Genius, and thus this blog! Don't you feel better now that you know?