You don’t talk about it when you meet them. You just notice their response to other, seemingly trivial and unrelated situations. But you know what might lurk beneath. You were there during those times. You can forgive, but it starts to wear on you.

We don’t like to be taken advantage of, but do we have reason to believe this is the case? We all fall short. Some more than others. Punishment or forgiveness, determined by the damage done. It is quite extraordinary what lengths we go to forgive. Punishment might seem cruel, because it is cruel. Even if we are told it’s for their best, we can’t accept cruelty knowingly, even if we are indirectly contributing to some amount of it.