Cowardice and Betrayal
It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, for those who care about me to imagine the terror and the torment inflicted upon me by the old man, try as they might. He is an emotional butcher, a genuine child abuser, and a pathetic, cowardly little man nearing his eighth decade who still needs to blame someone else for his inability to reconcile bloated expectations and distended self-image with harsh reality. Those who don't care, simply choose to believe his denials. In any case, they reason, he is incapable of such brutality, because they were treated so differently. Thus I am reminded that genius is contagious to the extent it is confused with stupidity. While he and my mother were consummately ignorant about parenting, he certainly knew how not to leave bruises. But there is no excuse. It was criminal, and not only did she did not defend me, she has done her clumsy best to cover it up or ignore the abuse ever since. Recent confirmation that he was never my b...