Today has been a different day for me. While I’m normally stoic and unemotional, today I’ve cried more than usual. I’m sure it’s no coincidence that my emotions have been a little sensitive since I’ve had one of the perpetrators on my mind today. In fact, the image of the closet I used to hide in has been flashing in my mind.
All of this turmoil is because of a decision we’re trying to make. One of the parts wants to stalk him and haunt him. She looked up his information on-line and found his address, phone number, e-mail, high school, the date of his 30-year reunion, and the name of the company his wife owns. So we’ve been thinking about sending him a letter or an e-mail telling him to give us an apology, fuck off, and drop dead.
This wouldn’t be the first letter we’d have sent him. About fifteen years ago we sent him a letter acknowledging what he did to us and scaring the shit out of him by telling him we told his family members what we did. Other circumstances later brought us face to face with him, and he refused to talk to me. .
I don’t know why there is this pursuit of him again. I am without doubt that he will refuse to talk to us and will NEVER give us an apology. But, for whatever reason, there is a resurrection of anger, and we can’t let this go. We want him to know we aren’t going away; we will stay after him until we get an apology.
But then again, we don’t want him to have the satisfaction that we are still bothered by him, that what he did to us still affects our lives.
So we wrestle with the decision: do we e-mail him, or just stay quiet.
Maybe we are trying to find our voice, trying to stand up for what was taken from us. We aren’t afraid of him. In fact, if we were ever face to face with him again, I would sort of worry for his safety. I know what some members/parts/ alters are capable of. But we just want some satisfaction when it comes to him; we NEED some sort of acknowledgement. Otherwise, we may never have peace.
What would you do? Letter, e-mail, or silence?
4 comments:
I would write to him, whichever you feel more comfortable doing, but personally email. and be honest and upfront and get it off your chest, but don't be threatening. that might trigger something in him and you dont want to go back and forth or anything more to spin out of control. but follow your heart!
I would write to his wife.
Ethereal Highway,
His wife already knows from the first letter!! He told her I was crazy because I had been in the hospital and they had given me false memory syndrome. She refused to believe me!
I've used a technique in the past, where I start off writing the letter that details everything I want to say... I then start doing drafts of it... adding emotion, taking bits out... I keep doing drafts, and with each draft the letter takes shape into one which I could send without being arrested for threatening behaviour etc. With each draft, the sting of the emotion lessens... because the letter is about me, not about the perp. It's about me releasing the emotions and organising thoughts on paper. Usually, by the time I get to the final draft, I don't want to send it, because I know it will never change the perp. But, the process of getting to that point eased some of the pain inside.
I don't know if that would work for you. But I thought I'd mention it, just in case.
If you've already sent them letters in the past, do you think that sending them more will change their attitude or minds? Unless they've had some serious help, the denial and manipulation of the facts to suit them will continue.
It's tough either way...
Take care,
CG
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