Monday, October 05, 2015

October is Domestic Violence Month. Just in time for the Synod on the Family.

I wonder if you can buy greeting cards to send?


Always use soft foods and liquids when hitting in the face.

October is filled with holidays, huh?

I have fond memories of how my parents handled things.  After many years of domestic violence, and great expense for emergency care and glasses replacement for my mom, my dad stopped hitting and would grab the glasses from my mother's face and pop the lenses out.  Then he'd slam her head into the wall.  One Christmas we came over and though she was black-eyed and puffy, and the phone was pulled out of the wall and there was a huge hole in the sheet-rock, her glasses were just fine.

"What happened to the wall mom?"

"Nothing."

And everything was fine after that.



“There are always fights in a marriage, aren’t there? Sometimes plates fly. You’re laughing, but it’s the truth." - Pope Francis

Isn't that cute?  Isn't that true?

"Just be careful when you fight, family - don't create a lot of unnecessary expense.  We love you!" - Bob and Penny Lord.

Guys, if you're unmarried and still living in the basement,
be kind to your mothers.

8 comments:

  1. Wow, just wow. Sorry to hear This was your life as a child. While I do not intend malice towards the holy father, I must say having his quotes next to your story makes them paltry words to reconcile the horror of domestic abuse. If anything, I say that more thorough checking of couples mental states should be done before marriage, something that the 6-session mandated marriage courses cannot do. If marriages were not conceived but halted before they began due to temperament problems or histories, maybe there would be less victims of domestic violence like yourself. I just hope Pope Francis has or will say deeper stuff that bury his quotes above after this post. Thanks for proving my mind today Terry.

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    1. Sorry you had to see this Julian. ;)

      This was meant to be humorous.

      The Month is supposed to be about awareness - but I probably should have treated it more seriously. Humor has been my way of dealing with these issues - but people seem to miss that.

      What? ;)

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    2. Oh really? Yeah I didn't really get that. Some things don't quite lend themselves to being humorous, no matter what comedian tries to do it or how it's said. And online text doesn't help make things more humorous without being written in a certain way.

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  2. In my (alcoholic) family, we called it...gallows humor. or, black humor.....we found it all very amusing: witnesses...not so much.

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    1. I know - the humor only works after the fact.

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  3. I am reminded of the opening line of Anna Karenia. I paraphrase, " All happy families are alike in their happiness and all unhappy families are different in their unhappiness." Most families have their skeletons to hide. No one knows what goes on behind closed curtains. A case here in Rochester, NY is now in the hands of a jury. A 19 year old Ivy League student comes home to an abusive home and, allegedly, shoots his father point blank with a shot gun. Days later the police are called. He says he had to do it. His mother had made 911 calls repeatedly in the weeks before. This is a wealthy family in a beautiful home. His defense at trial? His lawyer in closing statement says, " his mother did it." The community rallies to the son and raises a lot of money for his defense. His mother never appears in court or in public. The father's very profitable business is now in the hands of the mother and another son. The jury is out now for 5 days. There are reports of heated debate coming from the jury room. The community is on pins and needles awaiting a verdict. Probably will be a hung jury. My point? No one knows what goes on in unhappy families. We often do not really know who they are until tradegy sticks. Families are complicated.

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    1. Most people assume that wealth=happiness. Even those on the merry go round; recently there was a family here, believed to be happy and wealthy. I think they had just sold a ridiculously large house and bought and even more ridiculously large house closer to the husband's business which was under investigation. Then there was the welfare check when kids weren't at school. All were dead. The dad had killed his wife and three teenagers before committing suicide.

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