Age Old Mud Slinging

My mom's family is in Maryland preparing to bury my aunt on Friday. Her remaining siblings are all there... my mom and 2 of her remaining sisters and her sister-in-law. They have gathered together to perhaps find comfort in each other's presence. Or maybe they are together because it is what people do when someone dies.

Many of my cousins are there... we tend to see each other ... it seems only at funerals now.

My mom has lived a life of being bullied. As a child, she was picked on by her siblings. Perhaps it was just the typical sibling stuff yet it had a significant impact on her self-esteem or lack there of. She was taunted with things as being to dark, or ugly. Instead of getting past this, she allowed it to dictate her view of herself.

She married "later" in life and "settled" for someone that would become her biggest bully. Again she lived with it. She fought back in her own way, yet live her life as a victim.

Back in the presence of her sisters, she is being bullied again. Jealousy causes her sister to resort to the age old method that worked. Even in their 70s... they continue to be hurtful. My aunt is consumed by meanness and bitterness. Ugly things continue to come out of her mouth...

Funerals and wedding seem to bring out the worst in people, don't they say?

Once a bully, I suppose always a bully. Once a victim, always a victim. This I know, not to be true... yet I wish that despite the growth my mom has made in her 70 years... she would be able to stand up to this bully.

Maybe both sisters should be thrown into a bath of mud... and fight it out! Oh.. the visual....

Sad that people have to put others down to build themselves up.

My mom says she is happy... after a lifetime of living by other people's rules, she lives by her own. Mistakes that are made are her own. She is not made to clean up other's messes... anymore. She has found her peace... it may not be what I would choose but it is hers only.

My aunt is jealous of this. She lacks peace... despite the fact that she may have lived a life that was a social norm. Sad. I think that life would suck if you have been robbed of true happiness, something that is in your power, has always been in your power to grasp. You have just missed it.

Maybe I need to just beat her up! (joke)