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Forbidden Passage

We weren’t allowed to study it in class. A classic. One of the best. But it had that word in it—so it wasn’t taught. It remained in the school library. Waiting. Occasionally someone would check it out and show us the forbidden passage. We laughed because we were supposed to.

It was when my own children went through the same school that I recognized how silly it was. To refuse to teach a work, but put it within reach. To taunt us. To dare us to understand it on our own. All the implications. The meaning. Maybe that was what they had in mind all along. We would never have wanted to read it otherwise. In our attempt to strike against authority we fell into his trap.

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