There's something disturbing about the documentary American Vagabond. Its central character, a young gay man named James Temple, is homeless after running away from a mentally violent home; James tells how his father Jim used to abuse him verbally, tell him to kill himself, and eventually abandoned him; James talks about how he was traumatized after seeing his dad torture a bird on a hunting trip, and how he decided that he simply didn't want to see animals get killed anymore.

But the documentary ends with a letter James has written to his father: "I love you, dad. ... I'd love to go hunting and fishing with you... I know I didn't like it when I was younger, but now I know what's important and I think it would be fun..." No you don't. Why are you giving up? You did nothing wrong. Your father has been a horrible person. What he did to you was inexcusable. What he did to the bird was inexcusable. He's the one who should be apologizing. You have nothing to be sorry for.

Where do fathers like this come from? There are hundreds of millions of them in this world. What are their stories? Who destroyed them? Not too many people are born evil.

It seems that nearly everyone I know are better than their parents. It's odd. How bad humans generally seem to be at being mothers and fathers. How bad humans seem to be at loving. I guess the best thing you can do is grow up to be better than the people who created you.