A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT.

The article focuses on the author’s complex and evolving relationship with religion, sexuality, and family during childhood and adolescence. It recounts an early spiritual experience perceived as a personal encounter with Jesus, set against a backdrop of a strict Baptist upbringing in a privileged Virginia family. The narrative explores the tension between religious teachings about purity and the author’s emerging sexual awareness, including feelings of guilt and confusion linked to masturbation and sexual fantasies. A significant episode involves a mistaken belief in pregnancy, which leads to a loss of faith and a prolonged search for meaning beyond traditional religious frameworks. The piece reflects on how these intertwined experiences shaped the author’s ongoing quest for identity, spirituality, and self-acceptance.