sometimes, the way this world operates just makes me want to cry.
i just got a call from my daughter. her father is in the hospital. he was attacked in his home.
he has a pet dog. he also has a girlfriend who lives in pennsylvannia. so he often takes pictures of things that make him smile and send them to her so she can smile, too.
the dog was outside playing with some of the neighborhood kids. it made him smile. he took a picture to send to his girlfriend. when he took the dog inside, he told the kids they probably should go home because it was getting dark.
shortly thereafter, there was knock on his door. it was the mother of one of the kids. she was upset that he had taken pictures of her children. she demanded to see them. so he showed them to her. she demanded he destroy them. he didn’t understand why she was upset. and he thought she was being unreasonable. he explained he was taking shots of his dog playing with children to show his girlfriend.
she left angrily.
you can likely guess how it went from there.
the father came, words were exchanged, then blows. his nose was broken and he’s had a few teeth knocked out and he’s in the hospital for injuries i do not yet know about because my daughter had to get off the phone to take a call from her attorney.
what kind of world has it become when this kind of thing can happen?
it makes me sad. and i think about my ex-husband slowly reconnecting with the world and being able to smile and how this kind of incident likely just pushed him back into the alcoholic withdrawal.
i couldn’t be what he needed, but that doesn’t mean i don’t care about him. i can’t manage a conversation with him that doesn’t turn into some kind of argument, but that doesn’t mean i wish him ill. i’ve never wanted anything but for him to be happy. ultimately, the only gift i could give toward his happiness was to be apart from him.
it makes me sad that complete strangers leap to such ugly conclusions and are so willing to hurt others in the name of their fears. or from a need to control every aspect of their lives. how much suffering do people endure for this kind of impossible need?
sad news. i am glad my daughter is there for him. i could tell by her voice and the sequence of events that she’s on the warpath. i do not envy those people. she’s got my tenacity and temper and the same determination that i have. i do not envy those people at all.
i suppose it’s just an example of how it just keeps begetting more of the same, though. samsara.
sigh.