Every family needs a loser. How else are we to gauge our progress in the world, if not by comparison to another product of our same bloodline in order to determine that I'm better than everyone else because my house has an attic, and no one else's does?
Rapunzel will be calling me any moment now saying, "You'd better not be referring to OUR family, young lady," which will balance out the fact that my children, the brats, address me as "old lady".
But it's true. Why is it that families don't get along? Because every member is secretly terrified, "What if the family loser is ME?" and they have to reveal to the rest of the clan the REAL loser before they themselves are cast in the role.
Seriously, you know there's a Renner out there going, "That Jeremy! He needs to get a real job. All he ever does is make a brizillion dollars pretending to be someone he's not!"
Face it. At some point in your life, you're going to be the family loser, even if only for a moment. My advice to you: embrace it! Bask in it. BE the loser you were born to be! Revel in the glory of being the one everybody's talking about. Just don't get too cocky, because you're not actually THAT special. It happens to everyone.
Showing posts with label family relationships. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family relationships. Show all posts
Friday, May 13, 2016
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Point of View
My sisters-in-law are both lovely and talented women but with opposite outlooks on life.
My sister-in-law Hatesme invited our family for dinner but Hunneypunkin declined because I wasn't feeling well. Hatesme was offended, told everyone she knew that we'd snubbed her, got us permanently excluded from the annual clan chili feed and fashion show, and in twelve years has never extended another invitation.
My sister-in-law Lovesme invited our family for dinner too but Hunneypunkin declined again because I wasn't feeling well still. Lovesme sent me a giant get-well card, a dozen balloons, a whole herd of flowers, a case of 7-Up, a box of Bugs Bunny Band-aids, a zebra-print body pillow, a quart of Vick's Vapo-rub, a cauldron of Campbell's condensed chicken noodle soup, a year's supply of vitamin C, a thermometer, a ten-pound box of Saltines, a hot water bottle, a private nurse, a life-size cardboard cutout of Jeremy Renner, and a raincheck for dinner when I felt better.
The difference in point of view intrigues me. Both sisters-in-law were raised, as I was, in properly dysfunctional, perfectly lower-middle-class families so neither should be more predisposed to being positive than the other. Their political stances, religious views, and family lifestyles are similar enough that one would expect their perspectives to be similar.
Because of being chronically fatigued and therefore often unable to get off my butt, I've had a lot of time to reflect on people's behavior. I haven't reached a practical, logical conclusion as to the reasons for the differences in people's attitudes, but I've decided that it is a choice, and I've chosen my own point of view. Perhaps if I sent Hatesme that life-size cardboard cutout, her outlook on life could be different.
My sister-in-law Hatesme invited our family for dinner but Hunneypunkin declined because I wasn't feeling well. Hatesme was offended, told everyone she knew that we'd snubbed her, got us permanently excluded from the annual clan chili feed and fashion show, and in twelve years has never extended another invitation.
My sister-in-law Lovesme invited our family for dinner too but Hunneypunkin declined again because I wasn't feeling well still. Lovesme sent me a giant get-well card, a dozen balloons, a whole herd of flowers, a case of 7-Up, a box of Bugs Bunny Band-aids, a zebra-print body pillow, a quart of Vick's Vapo-rub, a cauldron of Campbell's condensed chicken noodle soup, a year's supply of vitamin C, a thermometer, a ten-pound box of Saltines, a hot water bottle, a private nurse, a life-size cardboard cutout of Jeremy Renner, and a raincheck for dinner when I felt better.
The difference in point of view intrigues me. Both sisters-in-law were raised, as I was, in properly dysfunctional, perfectly lower-middle-class families so neither should be more predisposed to being positive than the other. Their political stances, religious views, and family lifestyles are similar enough that one would expect their perspectives to be similar.
Because of being chronically fatigued and therefore often unable to get off my butt, I've had a lot of time to reflect on people's behavior. I haven't reached a practical, logical conclusion as to the reasons for the differences in people's attitudes, but I've decided that it is a choice, and I've chosen my own point of view. Perhaps if I sent Hatesme that life-size cardboard cutout, her outlook on life could be different.
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