Hit me again Ike...and put some stank on it...

Hit me again Ike…and put some stank on it: So here we go…the rant of the week. This past Saturday, I was almost certain that I was going to go off on Soccer moms and piss poor planned sports parks. I even took my trusty digital voice recorder to the soccer fields to take notes in order to capture every single detail of the Old Navy fashion show that is Saturday morning soccer. Suddenly…things happen, I get emotional and pissed off, and the change occurs. This week, I’m going to dive into the personal lives of my wife and I and set something straight once and for all. First of all…I need to take you back twenty glorious years to the late eighties to explain where we’re coming from. Next to the fountain in our beloved indoor flea market aka the Crossroads Mall…I met a young girl that blew my mind. Granted, she was too young for there to be any kind of love interest but she was cool nonetheless. For years after that, we were almost inseparable as friends. Suddenly, life happened, we both lost track of each other, and the two of us married other people. No big deal, right? After all…there were no feelings involved…or were there? A couple of years later, we ran into each other unexpectedly and, ironically, I was going through a divorce. I confessed my undying love for the girl…and it went absolutely nowhere. She was in a relationship and I was two steps behind. A few months later, I left for the military and was almost certain that the two of us were something that was never meant to be. I knew I loved her with all of my heart but accepted the fact that I was never meant to be with the girl of my dreams. I don’t want to bore you with the details of the next few years so I’ll allow you to fill in the blanks. After that however, with another divorce looming on the horizon, we became a part of each other’s lives once again by chance and the friendship of our youth was rekindled…with one minor detail standing in the way. She had recently gotten married again. Accepting the truth that this was definitely something that was never meant to be, as though all the other signs throughout the years wasn’t enough, I accepted the fact that any type of romantic involvement was totally out of the question and, instead, just enjoyed the comfort and company of my long lost friend again. Then…things turned horribly sour and certain truths came out. She began showing up to my place battered, bruised, and scared out of her mind because the douche she was tied to turned out to be a dope dealing woman beater with a computer full of kiddy porn that was way more important than the beautiful woman that sat before me in confession. A couple of violent instances later, I barged through his front door in an angry rage informing him that my best friend no longer lived with him. He didn’t even put up a fight…although he takes great pride in convincing total strangers that he almost decapitated me screaming towards the heavens ‘There can be only one!’ Long story short, rescue, recovery, romance and now here we are happily married with those bad experiences being nothing more but an occasional nightmare in the deep, dark night. The reason that I chose to rant on this subject is that someone else I know has gotten involved in a relationship with the guy…regardless of the times that she has heard the story of my wife’s near death experiences as well as the guys next wife’s near death experiences plus all the girlfriends in between. First question to the masses…was I wrong in interrupting my wife’s marriage in order to keep her from possibly dying? In my defense, she was my best friend that followed me throughout my worldly travels in my heart and soul and I couldn’t stand to sit back and watch horrible things happen to her. Second question…would you have done the same thing or just sat back and let things play out? Finally…is it just me or do some women just enjoy putting themselves in danger on purpose? Honestly…I guess I just don’t care anymore what happens to this guy or anyone else he’s involved with. Sometimes, pain is the best teacher of them all…otherwise some of us wouldn’t spank our children when we were attempting to teach them a lesson. I stood face to face with this demon and won my prize hands down…although it wasn’t an easy task. There are aspects of her personality that will be fractured forever due to the abuse she took and there’s no amount of support in the world that will ever make them truly whole again. Also, when I think back on all the time I’ve spent over the past few years contemplating this guy’s demise…I wonder how else I could’ve used that time for constructive things? To add insult to injury…the dope dealing, wife beating, child porn king extraordinaire works for the newspaper that I so desperately wish to write for but I guess I can’t let that bother me either. Those are traits that you just don’t want added to your resume. What I’ve slowly realized over the years is that I’ve let this guy become my personal demon, driving anger deep within my soul that will probably be nearly impossible to extract and drive out. It was a close call but I saved the one that really mattered to me. Just as I’ve told my children…the pathway has been laid before us and we’re the ones that have to choose the direction we will walk. You can’t save the world, Chad…you can’t save the world. It’s time to stop trying. Besides…if I could…we’d have no one to watch on Springer, Wilkos, and Maury. Was this truly a rant…or was it a confession from the remnants of my tattered soul? Evil is real and it walks among us…putting our newspapers together while we sleep in our comfortable beds awaiting its morning message. When you’re done reading it with darkened fingers…is it the ink rubbing off…or the blackness of his soul seeping out of his body reaching out to each and every one of us? I release you, demon, to haunt me no more. And people wonder why I only read the online version of the paper…