Upon further reflection...

I haven't been able to stop thinking about my last post. Somehow, I feel as though I maybe missed something, or was a little too harsh on my stepfather. So this post is mainly to (hopefully) rectify that.
I think it's fair to first give a little bit of background on him: Born in the mid 1940's, he grew up on a farm. Needless to say, different time and place, with a set of hardships most of us have only read about or seen on tv. He returned from Viet Nam to find his wife in bed with another man. His family seemed to be of the opinion that it was his mistake to divorce her, and forever regarded my mother, and me, as somehow illegitimate. He had a job with the Air Force that was so secret he couldn't even tell us his job title or description. But we didn't need that information to see that it entailed the sort of stress that most of us couldn't imagine, and would very likely crumble under. Keeping the free world safe, and all.
Given his parenting tool set, I actually think he did pretty well. And hindsight being, well, 20/20, I can understand (kinda) how difficult it must have been for him.
So, I hope I may be forgiven for calling him a prick in my last post. I'm still standing by that charge - all of the above does not excuse his behavior with me. But it does effect my understanding of it, and makes forgiving him so much easier.
I sincerely hope that everyone's 2011 is shaping up positively. I know that we have a great deal to look forward to here.