Sometimes true wisdom comes from a place where you'd least expect it.
A family friend is a lovely, intelligent young woman who has worked very hard to put herself through school, buy a condo and furnish it in a comfortable, stylish fashion. She inherited some lovely things from her parents and grandparents. She started dating a man who raised alarm bells among her friends. He had no job, no money, crashed on the sofas of various friends and borrowed her car frequently because he had none. But she loved the guy, so she married him. Less than a year later, she showed up in the ER with a broken nose, broken ribs and bruises all over. Her husband, although he insists that she fell down the stairs, has cut and swollen hands.
It seems the poor girl is really clumsy and falls down the stairs a lot. "She should leave him," my husband said. "She shouldn't have to take that." "Why doesn't she leave him?" Asked the child's biological mother. "Why stay with an abusive loser?" The child's stepfather says that if she was HIS kid, he'd "take care of that man," and gestured to his wall of gleaming swords and knives.
The child, who it seems is wise beyond her years, said "Why should SHE leave? It's her house, her stuff, and HE's the one causing the problem."
