"The Hateful" vs. "The Kind" Fri Feb 5, 2021 A very big family in a very small house: my childhood home. The youngest of six, fights terrified me. Four older brothers, all over six feet, athletes, hunters, trappers, and archers. When the borscht hit the fan, crimson spattered the walls. Smaller and softer than they, less angry, eager to please, I shuddered. What sparked these swift, hard fists, these over-the-top curses? We had food, shelter, chicken on Sunday, school, church, friends, movies; life was good. I was just a lump of dough, praying for quiet to return. I'm feeling the same fear again, of witnessing irrational hostility and fraternal violence, the despair that I am a bystander who has no power to influence events that terrify and depress me.