"Angry Man" by Steve Rhode
Yesterday, I had a phenomenal day as my blog entry was Freshly Pressed (meaning it was recognized as a blog with a quickly growing audience), and it received a fair amount of attention. I was excited and enjoyed moderating all the comments and visiting new blogs. Somewhere in there, the following response came in from a respondent named Ed.
Initially, I felt like I had been punched in the stomach. I took his words personally. I wondered, Who is this guy? And why does he hate me so much?
That lasted for about 1 minute. The real lesson reflects my worldview: Most people are fabulous and supportive and interesting and delightful . . . but there is always going to be that one person who shows up drunk to your party and throws up in your bathroom. He is the thorn in your side, the fingernails on the chalkboard, the raccoon that comes to your campground and eats all your s’mores fixins. That person keeps us humble. Keeps our heads on. He provides balance. The trick is not to let the Eds of the world keep you down. Thank you, Ed, whoever you are.
Here are Ed’s exact words in response to yesterday’s blog. I have let him know that I have reposted his response today, so that he might comment – if he would like to.
So you ended up being just a mother.
Just another mother, like a chimp, a cow, an elephant, a whale, just another mother, like an insect, or an octopus, or a worm. Just another mother.
Your kids will not thank you, your husband will not like you, your own mother will pity you for making her own same mistake.
Just another mother.
For a moment of frenzy, of uterine voracity, irrational and irreversible, you destroyed your body, your beauty, and your own intellect.
Parental-brain-atrophy-syndrome, where your brain biologically adjusts to the need of your infants, descending at their own subhuman level, with just one dimension, food, or perhaps two dimensions, food and feces.
You left your ambitions, your achievements, your potentials outside your life and outside the lives of those who really loved, only to become a receptacle of an unknown body of an unknown person that never will be yours, and to whom you will never belong. Strangers united in a pool of blood and dirt.
And dirt has become your life, and your life has become dirt. Urine, remains of food, excrements, diapers, vacuum cleaners, old soap, crusts, a life of dandruff and diseases, vaccine and lice, high school and drool.
You lost your dignity through your open legs, first inwards and then outwards, first-in-first-out, garbage-in-garbage-out, a boomerang of boredom.
Do you remember who you were?
Do you realize your loss?
Nobody chooses prison voluntarily, except for mothers, except for you.
You chose the life of a slave in a cavern of dirt.
People around you, who know that you are just another mother, do have compassion for you, but no respect. They know all about your emptiness, your pain, your despair, all dressed in the robes of a Virgin Mary.
And a Virgin Mary you are not, because Mary was not a Virgin, and you are not a Mary.
You were manipulated into just another life wasted on the heap of trash of a lost humanity dedicated to popular procreation and proletarian proliferation, to please the leaders of a domain of plebeians.
The world lost you, and you lost the world.
Good bye, sad mothers, good bye, old cows, with dried-out utters and distorted hips, good bye, and so alone you all will die.
Note from RASJ: I believe Ed meant to use the word “udders” (as in the things cows have beneath their bellies) – not “utters” (the synonym for the word ‘says’). Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Ed would have benefited by adding a dash in the word “good-bye” which appears three times in his last line. What can I say? First and foremost, I’m an English teacher.
renée a. schuls-jacobson 
Wow… somebody really hates their Mother OR their mother hated them. There is very little falsehood as it is opinion piece. It is sad that anyone would feel these horrible feelings about mothers and mothering.
The good news is that the vomit hit the toilet.
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OK…someone needs a hug from his mommy!
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That person is filled with nothing but pain, sadness, twisted thinking, and most obviously mental illness. It was absolutely sickening to read what he wrote because it is SOOOOOOOOOO horrifically wrong.
Being a mother is the most incredibly beautiful, growth-filled, satisfying, enriching, magical, wonderous, glorious, and important facet of womanhood. I don’t know a single mother who regrets becoming a mother, and who does not absolutely cherish that aspect of her life.
I’m sorry that Ed’s sickening commentary got re-posted. It should have been flushed down the toliet immediately along with his throw-up. Let the party go on without him.
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Ed is that guy with a thesaurus, letting everyone know how smart he is although never educated, he is too good for that, no time. He feels disenfranchised and those around him just don’t ‘get’ it. Probably abused in his own mind, a creation of dark, painful memories he inserted into his persona as a defense to his pathetic excuse for rambling attacks meant to solidify his intelligence and failing miserably. The misfit, hanging out in the artsy world of Wescott St.’ yet not fitting in even there. If only we knew and had seen what he has seen. Man’s vermin infested world and the evils it can be capable of, why, we would then acknowledge his very brilliance that his over-read book tells him that he is. My guess would be ‘Worldview’ is a concept not known to Ed. Rejection has turned his life into a brooding, shallow existence and he has now shown the world just how pathetic he truly is. God bless your Mother Eddie-boy, I’ll bet that you had food, comfort, vacations, cowboy outfits, and grilled cheese.
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…..wow…..words fail me at the moment. There are so many thoughts whirling in my head, and yet they’re all in fragments because I can’t even figure out what to say to make them full sentences in response to such a horrific commentary on mothers.
Ed, you are correct, sir. We do sacrifice our hopes, dreams and everything else to bear children. Your mother did too, so you could have the great gift of life and the great luxury of free will and thought so you could have the luxury of dogging on her and all other mothers. I’m so sorry for you that this is your perception.
Punch in the gut, indeed.
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1) That comment has nothing to do with what you posted yesterday.
2) That comment has nothing to do with you at all.
3) Feeding trolls only makes them think they can come back for another meal. 🙂
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“Feeding trolls.” Hmmm. I like that. Can I borrow it?
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It belongs to the internet – please use it freely!
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Oh my God, Renee! That is definitely someone who is tortured in his own head and has many issues going on in his brain. I wonder if he was abused as a child, abandoned or left to fend for himself growing up?! Ed, I think you need therapy, and I do not mean to offend you in anyway.
If it weren’t for intelligent ladies becoming moms the world would end, and that is what I get from what you wrote. Is that what you want? Is your life really that bad?
We did not lose who we are by becoming a mom, we only enhanced are lives more. The love for your child is a love that can never be explained unless you have one. Same for a father I am sure! Does that make him just a dad? Wow!
You know, Renee, I was just saying to my mom last night I have learned one thing and that is you can always trust your mom, when the rest of the world let’s you down! I have so much respect for my mom that what Ed said makes me sick to my stomach! Please talk to someone Ed I think it would help you work things out in your head and deal with the obvious hate you have for moms everywhere. Better yet, call your mom and talk things out, if that is an option for you.
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What a coincidence! Just last night I said to myself, “Megan, drag your chain around in a circle and look at this dirt-filled cavern.”
But so far it’s working out pretty well for me. My keepers are often sticky and smelly, but they give awesome hugs.
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Megan:
What a coincidence. I was just thinking, time to bust out of this prison – except then I’d be in a cave with worms and insects and octopi. 😉
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Blimey. Where to start? Whether to bother?
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Ouch! What a blast on motherhood! Unfortunately it is sad but many people hate their parents.
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Poor, poor Ed. He is in so much pain. He should try family therapy. God loves you, Ed!
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That guy is a crazed “troll” who found your blog because it was featured on the front page. He is twisted and psychotic. I follow a blog called “scary mommy”, where she writes some things similar to yours; [not teaching, but parenting issues, primarily], she has something like 2k Facebook fans and scads of readers, but she occasionally gets hate mail from nuts criticizing her child rearing skills. There is something about it that incites the crazies out there with serious psychological issues. I’m sure ‘Ed’ gets along with his own mother REAL well….I wouldn’t give him the time of day if he posts again. Are you moderating your comments?
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The “unsub” has a very unique way of stringing words together. A full profile should be available once I consult with the other at the B.A.U. until then place all mothers in the area on alert and to be aware of their surroundings.
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Sounds like Ed needs his own blog and about 80 more years of therapy. He’s got some serious uterus-envy going on there.
At least you didn’t get the guy who commented on my blog trying to get me to click over for Scottish porn, adult diaper tights and more information about pregnant women on antidepressants. Speaking of, maybe I should send that link to Ed. 😉
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Congratulations on being popular enough to bring some trolls to visit. 😉
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That is the grateful way of looking at things. Thank you, Erin! 🙂
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Mothers have the responsibility to protect and educate their children as well as raise them to be respectable adults. I have been blessed to have a wonderful mother and I hope I have been half the mother she is.
Motherhood…”The foundation of our national character is laid by the mothers of the nation” Josiah Gilbert Holland
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Mothers have the responsibility to protect and educate their children as well as raise them to be respectable adults. I have been blessed to have a wonderful mother and I hope that when my life is over I will have been half the mother she was.
Motherhood…”The foundation of our national character is laid by the mothers of the nation.” Josiah Gilbert Holland
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You know, I was going to comment on what’s-his-name’s comment, but it doesn’t seem worth my time…I think the rest of your followers have summed it up quite nicely 🙂
I am however going to have to google “Adult Diaper Tights” tonight…things that make you go “Hmmm”!
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Dear Ed,
I cannot return feelings of judgment and anger towards you – rather, concern and compassion. You sound so hurt and I feel sad that you were not born into a family where you felt the love and kindness of a Mother. From the time I was a child, I always knew I wanted to have a child of my own. I have so much love to give and am happiest when my focus is on giving and nurturing others. While I was an excellent student and was accepted to an Ivy league Univ. for my Master’s degree, and worked in a field that I was talented in, my greatest ambitions were to have a child. I am blessed to have my greatest dream realized. Yes, I have sacrificed: monetarily, independence, socially… but for me, that is my truest pleasure. I did not become a mother to receive a “thank you.” The intent is on giving and my thank you is turning out into this world a person who values and respects him/herself and therefore can do the same for others.
The role of a parent is a teacher. I will know I have done my job when my child leaves our home to venture out and build his own life and feels fulfilled and joyful with the life he creates for himself. Someone who is confident, happy, loving, kind to others and will parent with my passion, then I will know I have made the greatest achievement in life.
If you had been born to me, not a day would go bye that you wouldn’t feel deep in your soul wanted, protected, valued and loved.
So so sad for you my dear, lost soul. Shame on your mom, grandma, teachers, etc. who wounded you!! The little child that once was you is being tightly embraced in my loving, motherly arms.
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Hi there, obviously Ed is not in trouble with you but with himself or maybe another woman… wonderful post ! thanks for sharing the experience with us.
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Mr. Ed.
Could it have been the talking horse who posted this lengthy monologue?
Surely no, Mr. Ed was a horse after all and not critical of mothers. My memory of Mr. Ed is all in black and white, no shades of grey – maybe this then is Mr. Ed, for there is only black and white in this Ed’s words. A horse is a horse, of course.
This Mr. Ed has been posting elsewhere. No doubt you’ve noticed this by now. This is not his first sighting. Take the first couple of sentences and do a quick google search and you’ll see much of the same as you see here. A rant if you will – aimed at nothing more than provoking a reaction.
Give Mr. Ed a reaction. Well done my horse, you’ve garnered another reaction. Reactions from people you could not hope to know. Reactions from people who likely would never enter your daily orbit. Reaction. That’s his elixir. That’s his need. We feed it to him.
Perhaps his mother was just like you, perhaps she wasn’t. Does it really matter? At some level he’s responsible. He is who he is. He seeks to provoke. Simply for reaction sake. He foolishly rambles. He understands little of true family.
Mothers. Fathers. Children.
Thank you Ed. Thank you for reminding us just how misguided you are. Children are the good stuff, the fun part. They are the aspiration we have found. They are everything we have gained.
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Russell:
Thank you for Googling Ed. It never would have occurred to me. As I said, my immediately default is set to “What did I do to this guy?” Now I see he has posted on several blogs, nearly always on the day individuals have been “Freshly Pressed.” So he enjoys enormous attention from his “one hit number” each time he hits reply.
New lesson: This is my page. I’ll keep posting my thoughts here.
Thank you. You are really smart. I’ll bet you are a great dad! 😉
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All I can say is “Bravo Cuz”.
🙂
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