Quote Originally Posted by PaulaQ View Post
The only thing I'll ever say in my Dad's defense is that he never really had much of a chance at being a decent human being. His father was a chronic alcoholic, and his mother an absolutely out of her mind drug abuser. He was just broken. That didn't, unfortunately, prevent him from being one mean motor-scooter. Unfortunately, my step-dad was arguably worse.
Aces and eights. Sometimes the only thing you can do is play the cards that you have been dealt. It's doing the best with what you've got.

Quote Originally Posted by PaulaQ View Post
You have to take all that with a grain of salt though - I am an unforgiving person. It is a character flaw. Maybe Paula can be a better person than I've always been. /shrug
Forgiveness is like a release. It allows you to get out from under carrying all that STUFF around. It takes a lot of energy to haul around things that are not really necessary to your life.

By most accounts, I am a fairly calm, even tempered people. But, in the past there were a few people that I ABSOLUTLY DESPISED. If I happened to think of them or saw something that reminded me of them, my stomach just knotted. Eventually I came to realize that it cost me a lot of effort to stay focused in that place. And, it would be a lot easier if you could contain anger and hatred, but you can't. It spills over into other parts of your life and just makes a f+++ed up mess.