You're a good dude, and I'm sorry that you had a crappy childhood, terrorized by a violent narcissist. Thank you for sharing an interesting, well-written story with us.
Also, as a Jewish guy from Israel, the Hitler admiration is a truly hilarious and bizarre example of how antisemitism spreads in crazy ways to places that have 0 Jews in them. Sure, my grandmother lost her family as a teenager to this trend, but the WTF of this is is too weird to not be funny.
Amazing story. The ending was really touching for me. I really liked what you wrote about forgiveness. It's not about forgetting what someone did, or thinking they didn't do anything bad in the first place. It's about understanding the weight of the horrible shit they did but still not hating them, still seeing them not as an enemy to be punished but a friend gone astray. It's when you help someone, not because they deserve your help, but because it's the right thing to do.
Wow, what a story! You grew up rough, I had to grow up too and mature early being in the neighbourhood I grew up in, an island where crazy is allowed to let loose and tourist traps are a boon. I find this piece quite relatable.
And I can understand your trauma from crazy stuff most especially the one with the turd. See, I have had a turd flung my way more than once which is embarrassing to admit. Drive by shooting is also quite common and for silly reasons too and my uncle, thank goodness he was beheaded on another island before he could do more harm, was a psycho who tortured my mom and his younger siblings, tried to burn them once as they slept or have them jump whenever he swung his machete in his sick twisted game of Dance while I swing.
You are wonderful to have managed to pull through such a past. It was also great how your siblings have someone that looked after them. I have a complicated relationship with forgiveness but I do understand your point.
Nowadays, I do my best to shrug off that negative emotion and see life as a whole.
This is such a marvelous essay. You've earned me as a follower from it, and I'm sure I won't be alone in that.
It definitely tracks in my experience that racism is on average worse in all nonwhites. They don't have the industrialized racial guilt fed to them from birth that's become endemic to the Anglosphere. Indeed, they're tonicized by virtue of their nonwhiteness, and it regularly takes them in strange directions, though thankfully the Mikes of the world are still minorities. It just underscores how stupid and intolerable the whole "only white people can be racist" platitude is. Such a statement can only serve as an enabler and accelerant for racism.
Really curious what the prompt was for the picture. "Scared Mexican chefs in a restaurant kitchen with a confused octopus"?
You're a good dude, and I'm sorry that you had a crappy childhood, terrorized by a violent narcissist. Thank you for sharing an interesting, well-written story with us.
Also, as a Jewish guy from Israel, the Hitler admiration is a truly hilarious and bizarre example of how antisemitism spreads in crazy ways to places that have 0 Jews in them. Sure, my grandmother lost her family as a teenager to this trend, but the WTF of this is is too weird to not be funny.
What an amazing story- and what a writer you are!
Amazing story. The ending was really touching for me. I really liked what you wrote about forgiveness. It's not about forgetting what someone did, or thinking they didn't do anything bad in the first place. It's about understanding the weight of the horrible shit they did but still not hating them, still seeing them not as an enemy to be punished but a friend gone astray. It's when you help someone, not because they deserve your help, but because it's the right thing to do.
Wow, what a story! You grew up rough, I had to grow up too and mature early being in the neighbourhood I grew up in, an island where crazy is allowed to let loose and tourist traps are a boon. I find this piece quite relatable.
And I can understand your trauma from crazy stuff most especially the one with the turd. See, I have had a turd flung my way more than once which is embarrassing to admit. Drive by shooting is also quite common and for silly reasons too and my uncle, thank goodness he was beheaded on another island before he could do more harm, was a psycho who tortured my mom and his younger siblings, tried to burn them once as they slept or have them jump whenever he swung his machete in his sick twisted game of Dance while I swing.
You are wonderful to have managed to pull through such a past. It was also great how your siblings have someone that looked after them. I have a complicated relationship with forgiveness but I do understand your point.
Nowadays, I do my best to shrug off that negative emotion and see life as a whole.
This is such a marvelous essay. You've earned me as a follower from it, and I'm sure I won't be alone in that.
It definitely tracks in my experience that racism is on average worse in all nonwhites. They don't have the industrialized racial guilt fed to them from birth that's become endemic to the Anglosphere. Indeed, they're tonicized by virtue of their nonwhiteness, and it regularly takes them in strange directions, though thankfully the Mikes of the world are still minorities. It just underscores how stupid and intolerable the whole "only white people can be racist" platitude is. Such a statement can only serve as an enabler and accelerant for racism.