A point.

My father was a great father. He really was. I have fond memories of my dad telling me he was proud of me when I'd get a hit in little league or when I'd bring home good grades in school. I remember playing cribbage with him, joking with him, just enjoying being around him.
My father was a great father. He was the kind of man I wanted to grow up to be. He had a fine job. He had a happy marriage. A nice house. Good kids. He had a good life. He was happy.
That's what I always thought about him until he came home one day and told my mother that he'd filed for a divorce.
It was a shock to me. And in the ensuing months, when my father suddenly had a new live-in girlfriend, who moved from Florida after having talked to him online for 5 or 6 years, and alienating all 3 of his children (to varying degrees), as well as displaying some irradic behavior, I remember thinking he was going through some sort of life-crisis. I even asked him if he was. To which he said, "Somethings just got to a point, where I needed a change." Regardless of people's feelings and expectations, apparently, but I digress.
I bring this up not to lament about my daddy-issues or to pillary the man (though clearly I have some and he probably deserves it). I bring this up because I can see where my father was coming from. Sort of.
I don't know when he started feeling whatever it is that led him to feel he had to act out so manicly, but it must have been building for a while for him to feel justified in his actions. I sometimes wonder what it was that set him off finally. And I wonder what it was that was building in him, unnurtured and angry, all that time. I wonder if he had dreams he couldn't pursue after he came back from Vietnam and got married and started having kids. And really I just feel bad for him. Angry, though I am, I just pity him for forcing himself to go through the motions for however long and pretending to still be the same proud father and happy husband.
It's a weird feeling when someone you love becomes a cautionary tale. Despite their actions, you want things to work out for them, because you love them, even if you can't talk to them. And I guess things could work out for him. But I feel guilty knowing that my life is going to be better because I've seen his mistakes I know that I can work to avoid them.