Getting Caught

I often talk about my mothers. Actually, I talk quite a bit about my family. I use them as all sorts of examples in class. I try not to give away any crucial information, but as with most families, mine is the source of endless amusing stories and useful anecdotes.

And so I sometimes make comments about my mom. But I also make comments about my mom. (Confusing, isn't it?) Well, last night in class, I finally got caught out. One of my students finally realized I had referred to my mother both as a fundamentalist Christian and as an English professor. (I didn't say both at the same time, but he remembered I had mentioned one earlier.)

While these are necessarily mutually exclusive, he found it odd that she was both. Of course, my mother isn't both. One of them is the fundamentalist Christian, and one is the professor.

But I didn't want to explain it. So I simply said it was complicated. But he didn't drop it right away. He asked, "do you have two mothers?" I think he thought he was joking. I said "yes," and quickly changed the subject.

I don't really care if my students know, but I didn't want the conversation to turn into a discussion about me being adopted.

Oddly enough, I had gotten caught earlier in the day, too. At a meeting, we wound up discussing a movement to outlaw divorce in California (funny story, that), I mentioned that annulment would still be allowed. Which others in the room thought was odd, pretending the marriage never really happened. I pointed out that it's especially odd when the parents have children, such as what happened in my (adoptive) parents' case. So someone asked me if that left my status in doubt. I pointed out that I was adopted, so their annulment didn't affect my status. (That was screwed up years before when the government created falsified documents regarding my identity. But I didn't mention that.)

I can't believe I was outed twice yesterday (Tuesday). Very odd. Maybe I'm getting more comfortable 'fessing up to my own status as an adoptee. Or maybe I just made the best of uncomfortable situations that my own inability to shut up landed me in.