I am realizing the importance of boundaries. And I'm not talking about the controlling manipulative kind (for instance, "Excuse me, but I'm going to have to set a boundary about you talking about the weather. I have weather issues, because in my childhood the weather changed a lot, so it brings up a lot of trauma for me to listen to you talk about how it might rain later today.") I'm talking more like ghetto boundaries, like "no, she dint," and that sort of thing. The kind that kept Russia from pulverizing the US in the cold war. The kind that make people think twice about making fun of Mike Tyson to his face.

I think in the past I confused kindness with disconnection with reality. If someone acts like a horror show bitch it's within the natural course of events, intuitive for most people, to a) stay away or b) behave or talk in some manner that effectually sends the message to "*#% off," it doesn't really matter how. I think when Jesus said, "Turn the other cheek" he was just misquoted and didn't get to finish his sentence (which so often happens to celebrities). He probably wanted to say something like, "Turn the other cheek to someone who has their act together (assuming that there is an Aramaic expression for 'get your act together'), or to something joyful in your life." But Luke (or whoever) just wrote down what he wanted to hear because he wanted to justify his own abusive behavior to his wife (or whoever). And what better way to guilt someone into condoning your behavior than to say "Hey, according to Jesus, you need to accept me more and not dwell on how I just threw a tantrum and broke all the water jugs!"