Member-only story
Bullies Have Mobile Boundaries They Trot Out at Their Own Convenience
As far as they’re concerned, the rules only apply to you
When I was growing up, I often got stuck having to spend the weekend with my psychotic cousins. They were deranged, violent people who lived like animals. They all grew up to become truck drivers and hard core conservatives.
A decade ago I tried to reconnect with them because we live within a cesspool of constant pressure that makes you feel perpetually guilty if you cut toxic people out of your life. I discovered they were all running stills in the depths of the uninhabited forests of Northern Wisconsin. They spent their days drinking, driving ATVs and drunkenly shooting skeet.
Sometimes one of them died, but there are still a lot of them somehow.
The stress of constant risk
When I went to visit them as a kid, I was always afraid that I might lose a finger. There are some people who are like that. You might lose a finger around them. I expect that might sound bizarre to some of my readers, so here’s a list of ways you might lose a finger:
- Holding a lit firecracker
- Accidental discharge of a firearm
- Axe throwing