Anyone???? The better question is "Is there anyone out there who doesn't have scars from their childhood????" If you raised your hand then your childhood was sooooo bad as to make you delusional now. Don't start me on my Mom (cold chills are running down my spine! [ a glimpse: she took me 1000 miles from home for an unnecessary operation so she could continue her extra marital affair with the surgeon!] nice clip?) My first wife had polio and was always "the little sick girl". My current wife's brother died of luekemia while she was in high school and her Mom became bitter, resentful, and withdrawn to this day. Shall I go on? Your situation, Kev, was horrible. I would never say it wasn't. But it was no unique except that the specifics were unique to you. Besides if your Dad was so terrible, (rhetorical because clearly he was!) then why do you still allow him to have power over you and continue to make you miserable? Acknowledge that he was a horribly flawed human being who lost out on so much by marginalizing you and count it as his lose and our gain here!
I had a really great flow chart poster that I picked up at a college poster sale. If I can find it, I'll take a pic of it. Essentially, 1st 3 groups are, if you can reason it out, if you can wing one right back, or if you can walk away.
I shouldn't let him have power, and in a way expressing it here is helping relieve that hold over me. I have held this in far too long Pastor Keith. It may take me a while......I just am not the type of guy who can just let go that quickly. I need some kind of validation.....and I know I will never get it from him, so I need to work myself so I can get that validation from inside of me. Putting it on paper (or the internet will you), gets it out of me.....and I can finally let that part go. Each time I do this, a part of it goes away.
And to think I was making fun of the disabled earlier in this thread. Kinda makes me feel like Lucky. :shudder:
I smell a Family Guy reference... Joe Swanson: Hey Peter, what's up? Peter Griffin: Joe, I just, umm... just recently found out that I'm umm... I'm mentally ******ed, and umm... I just wanted to ask, umm... h-how do you deal with it? Joe Swanson: Peter, I'm handicapped, not ******ed. Peter Griffin: Okay, now we're splittin' hairs.
It's over, now. Please, don't give this another thought. There are too many GOOD things about this life to continue to dwell in the past.
You're great Pastor. It sounds like we need some group therapy. Believe me I count on you and the Rev a lot in here. My dad was horrible, mentally, and it took me years to rise above it. And still at times it comes back in certain situations. Now, I feel pity for the time he lost with us by being so mean.
