So I just began a job at a domestic violence shelter for women and children....
It is hard to know what to say about this: the first thing I think as I look at the faces of each of these women, each of these children, is "How in the world could anyone abuse you?" Sure, everyone who lives here as an issue or two...some have used drugs, some are drunks, some have even committed crimes...
However, everyone I know has some issues, and none of that ever gives anyone the right to abuse...
These women have been so brutilized, some of them, that they are terrified of men...they are petrified and live with a constant flood of catacolimens (stress hormones,) in their bloodstreams....
Yesterday the building across the street was on fire and you could feel the fear and nerviousness in the women...when your life is living in a constant state of chaos and fear, you naturally react much more strongly to stressors....
One of the women who lives here is dying from cancer...she is here because her husband shot her with the intention of killing her....
Some of these women are pregnant...many have small kids...and I wonder...who are these men who do these things? Where does domestic violence come from? I know lots of men...some nice, some not so nice, but none the sort of men I could imagine shooting someone with cancer or driving his wife away because she is so afraid of him....
What is so off-kilter in our world that men like this exist? How can abuse exist?
Love,
Sycamore Fitch
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