That night, maybe half a year ago, I was ordered outside by MOP in the middle of dinner. By
outside, he meant stand outside and think about what I did wrong. I went outside. Mom came with me.
"Let's go for a walk," She said.
That night, I spilled the emotions I had kept from everyone (with the exception of Tim) for years. I was crying, hard. It wasn't pretty.
*** ***
I don't remember the exact thoughts and feelings that crawled through my head when I first found out about MOP's affairs, but I think it started with numbness. Disbelief. Like, it's impossible, it can't be real... HE'S MY DAD! How could this happen?
Then the anger appeared. It burnt. Of course I knew that wrath was bad for me and I should let it go (what Mom always tells me), but it wouldn't disappear. It made me want to claw anything in sight and tear up whatever belonged to HIM. HE that betrayed Mom. I hated that I had to breathe the same air as him.
There was, of course, confusion. Did Mom know? If she knew, why wasn't she trying to stop it? If she didn't, should I tell her?
Under everything was unrelenting sadness. Pain. Remember when you had to go to the dentist to pull a tooth? She gave you a painkiller thing, and feeling disappeared from your mouth; but when she pulled the tooth out, you still felt a dull kind of hurt. That was how it felt. It didn't help, of course, that the metaphorical tooth never grew back, nor did the pain recede.
*** ***
That night, I came back and slunk up to my room, hoping MOP wouldn't notice me. God knows the last thing I need is him seeing me look so weak.
He told me we had to talk anyway.
Even with all the emotions churning, refreshed, through my mind, I was sure that he'd say sorry, say it was all a mistake, and promise us it would never happen again. I thought that he'd say sorry, and everything would be all right.
Naive, as it turned out.
*** ***
He didn't say sorry to Mom, nor to me. Not the slightest allusion to sorry. If anything, according to him,
we should be the ones apologizing - for getting so emotional and whiny.
I couldn't believe it. I still do, sometimes. Adultery is just plain no-excuse wrong, isn't it? I know I'm naive, but I don't think I'm
naive enough to completely misinterpret moral codes.
Or maybe... he's the one with, to quote Anna Valerious, "a moral compass turned completely inside out". I reckon MOP has some serious narcissist tendencies too.
*** ***
Had another argument with him Jan 28th. We were trying to persuade him to change his style of humor - crude and cruel at best. Mom and I weren't even trying to argue, just talk over this peacefully.
But he takes every criticism personally. A few seconds into the talk, he had heated up like a marshmallow on a fire. He got extremely defensive and complained that we didn't appreciate him enough, there wasn't a second when we weren't attacking him. Funnily enough, he voiced quite a few of my thoughts. I don't think he realized that.
"I work hard, and I don't come home to be insulted."
"I do anything you demand."
Some of his comments got to me a little, though. The one that came up the most was his "dog" analogy; it also popped up later, when the subject of debate turned to his affairs.
"Even
a dog," he said heatedly, "would wag its tail at me when I came home."
Mom had been predictably passive for most of the time, but now she countered his remark in her calm style. Go Mom.
"If I may say so, a dog doesn't care in the least if you have affairs."
I resisted a smile. Strangely/Luckily enough, I wasn't crying at all this time - an accomplishment that makes me proud. I used to start crying seconds into the subject of daddy's little exploits. I was quite glad I was rational.
Dad retreated into defense mode.
"Fine, I'll move out. I'll start looking for an apartment. I don't want any of the money. Happy now?"
"That's not the way to solve this problem," I said evenly. I prepared to probe deeper into his head, as it were. "May I say something?"
"NO! I don't want to listen! Just shut up, I have a spreadsheet to read." He covered himself with blankets and started to type, hard, on his laptop.
I eyed Mom. "Okay, if you have to work, don't let me bother you." I got up, after no response from him, and walked away. "We can talk some other day."
Up in my room, I thought back on what he had and hadn't said.
"He still doesn't think it's his fault, does he?" I wondered.
*** ***
To my surprise and his credit, he seemed more rational the next morning. He told me to sit down. Politely.
I was feeling good. A little hopeful, even. Maybe he'd say sorry, say it was all a mistake, promise it would never happen again, and voila, happily ever after.
Then MOP assumed the air of a professor getting out his chalk before the class. Which is a big flashing yield sign.
"You have to understand, nox, that monogamous marriage has been part of the social customs in China for less than a hundred years..."
Great. Just great. There go my hopes, down the drain.
"... men go out, they hunt, they - ah - take many wives; while women stay at home taking care of the kids, or gather food. This has been the way things were done since the very beginning..."
And that explains your adultery
how?
"... you can also see from the biological structure of men and women. A woman releases an egg only once a month, but a man ejects hundreds of sperm each time and can practically reproduce daily, and therefore bears the responsibility of passing down his genes. You see what I mean?"
Sure, I see what you mean. What a relief. Gee, dad, thanks so much for spreading all that sperm around. I'm sure you're contributing to the gene pool.
"
...That's why I told you to read that book,
The Origins of Virtue. It explains how human nature really is self-serving..."
Blah, blah, blah.
"...Many people have affairs. Many even have multiple wives. At least I don't do that; at least I don't have children other than Holly and you; at least I don't bring women home..."
Right. How about the many more people who are actually faithful?
"...I had an unhappy childhood. I was insecure and self-doubting, in need of validation..."
Same here, dad. The very same. Guess that makes me an egotistical, aggressive cheater in the near future, huh?
"...I didn't hurt you
actively. It was
you who read the messages in my cell phone, it was
you who read the email..."
So it's suddenly my fault?
Here is what I would like to tell him:
NO, THESE ARE NOT EXCUSES!!!
The "age" of marital customs, the "way things were done" in primitive society, the amount of eggs compared to sperm... are not excuses.
A selfish nature is no excuse. There are plenty of people who choose to help others and do not ask for retribution, selfish natures be damned (sorry about the swear word to anyone reading this). We should and can
overcome selfishness. All the more reason to do so to not hurt your family.
A question of perspective is no excuse. Listen to yourself! "At least" this, "at least" that.
Good is more - much more - than the lack of bad. While there may be many bad things other people do that you don't, you should consider how many more good things to do that you have neglected.
Hardship is no excuse. It does NOT justify one thousandth of your inexcusable behavior. There are plenty of people who walk out of hardship, changed for the better. As Anna Valerious said so wisely,
"Hardships that are overcome and endured make us into better people if we consistently make choices against our naturally selfish inclinations." Ergo, the way you have changed for the worse is because of yourself. No one else. Yourself. Don't you get it? There's nothing to blame other than your own choices.
Any difference between "passive" and "active" adultery - might as well call it by its name - is no excuse. What does it come down to? Abuse. Abuse of trust and love. And what difference does it make if you did it "actively" or not? The harm's
done. The truth is right there: you knew it was bad, you knew you shouldn't - don't bother denying it, you're a smart guy - and you still did it.
Look, I don't want a dad that's perfect in every aspect - an unattainable goal anyway. All I ask for is for you to admit your mistakes and stop hiding behind a wall of excuses, bouncing blame every which way. We don't demand you to have a high-salary job or buy us huge houses. If you think about it, kids don't say
my dad is a really great dad 'cause he earns a lot of money. They think of wonderful parents as being compassionate and reasonable. Being financially outstanding is only a bonus point, not a factor deciding a pass or a flunk.
I only want you to say sorry. Be truly remorseful about what you did. This is something you've let us down on time after time. You've said sorry, but it was like a footnote in an encyclopedia. It was picked up, thrown away, and buried in a matter of seconds.
One piece of advice: next time you say sorry, don't drag biology in. It makes the apology feel fake. Really, really fake.
