and the remarkable discussion here that has made my Christmas so wonderful. You have been integral to that blessing and I am deeply grateful for it.

Right back at you! Made my Christmas even better and very unique this year.

I do think it takes a lot of courage to talk about mistakes and especially violence received in the household. I think we have gotten a lot better as a society in terms of what we think is not "ok" in terms of "domestic" violence. However, if that leads to most of that violence being hidden because people are ashamed of it, it will probably be a lot worse for society because then it will just be a hidden cruelty. People abuse people and the stress of life can lead to people taking their frustrations out on their family which is terrible but common because who else can be the punching bag? We could probably use more literal punching bags in the household lol. When I get filled with rage these days I usually just go to a quite room, shut the door, and just breath. If it is not quite enough I try to go for a walk assuming I am coherent enough to pay attention to my surroundings.

Sounds like your father was a strong/hard man. Hard times make men strong but also make us capable of a higher level of cruelty. Which is needed to defend ourselves.

Luckily I did not have issues that bad with my parents. I mean I was overly aggressive as a teenage and that had consequences. But my father did have a lot of restraint.

I know a lot of my friends when I were younger were abused by their parents and many of them never left the streets. I think only 1% of us made it out. Every few years I will get notified that one of my child hood friends has died from either murder, self harm, drunk driving, or overdose.

It has been a while since I got a text so I am not sure if that means it stopped or I am just out of the loop. The only way I could get away from that life is I literally had to disappear and make new friends. Changing my social network was painful, they were all my brothers and sisters in arms. We were bad but in it together and we had each other's back. We were a family of destruction.

Growing up in Alaska must have been pretty rough. I think you had a similar level of hardship just the rural version. Almost like city mouse vs country mouse type of story but more realistic 😅

Good call on not stopping at the city. I try to tell my international friends not to come to the states unless they have a lot of money to live in a nice area. A poor person immigrating to the US and getting swallowed up by the streets is the opposite of the American dream but it happens a lot which is unfortunate.