This week, the most popular topic on my Facebook page has been the story regarding the Maryland teacher who went to the house of the child he was texting and the father hit him with a baseball bat. I caused a bit of controversy because I was on the side of the teacher, but not because I thought he’d done the right thing. I just thought that the parent should have taken a breath and had a Coke and a smile while he waited for the police to take the teacher away. Taking the law into your own hands rarely turns out the way you think it will or should.
There was so much blowback afterward~ including one person who said that a teacher texting his daughter gave him the right to any number of irrational acts.
And then I put it together why I was on the side of the teacher and I started to dry heave and run for the toilet.
It was just texting. They were just talking. How inappropriate could it get? I mean, it worked out so well for the teacher writing me when I was that age.
I need to throw up again.
Stories That Are All True 
I have a related history. These stories always leave me in an unsettled state. I tend to block it out, ignore. It took years in therapy to realize there was something wrong with my constant empathy for the teacher, my self blame. I really thought it was all my doing. I just got a birthday card in the mail from her. I just go numb. Like there’s nothing to say, nothing to think, nothing to do. Silence.
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It’s taken me a while to respond because I had to read your response several times. It just stayed with me while I sat with it. The “it wasn’t my fault” was the hardest thing to learn because in my head, it’s been all my fault for the last quarter century. Knowing that someone else has felt that emotion and has worn it on their skin touched me beyond belief. Thank you for hearing me.
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🙂
Thanks for talking.
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