"not found in the original manuscripts"

i was in my early 30's the first time i realized that some portions of the bible - certain words, phrases, whole passages even! - were in dispute, or "not found in the original manuscripts." for some reason i had never paid attention to "the fine print" at the bottom of the page - but on the day i did, whew! - reading, "not found in the original manuscripts" sent me into a tailspin. never before had i even considered the possibility that things were not as concrete and clear cut as i believed them to be with regard to the bible and what was written therein...and that realization rocked my world like an earthquake...but only for a moment...a moment of reality is about all a person like me can stand before i go into shock...and denial. i think that was when i started really acting like a mad woman - shoving questions under the bed and into closets, nailing down furniture to the floor so it couldn't be moved, bending my logic into pretzels like a side-show contortionist. i'm sure i had probably done that all that stuff before, subliminally...but now it was quite deliberate...and consequently, exhausting. because if it was true that things were not as i had believed, then all bets were off. how could i ever be certain of anything again?

-grannymac