Too Homegrown For Harvard

IN THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS EXTEND THE OLIVE BRANCH, BUT WHICH WAY DOES IT GO AGAIN?

By Karen White-Walker

World peace? Yeah, right, we’ll get right on it. If families who share the same gene pool, same environment, beliefs and cultures can’t get along, how can we even begin to imagine harmony with people what share nothing in common? Nothing in common that is except that the entire human race is God’s masterpiece designed in His image and made superior to all the animals and fishes of the land and sea. Animals haven’t any conception of death so they draw blood and kill. What’s our excuse?
How many of us know weirdoes who are perpetually angry with someone or something? They seem to only thrive when there’s discord and strife around them. It’s almost it’s like they need their daily ‘fix.’ It kills me when I meet people who claim, “I haven’t talked to my sister in seven years, or a brother in ten.” You think I’m about to confess that I haven’t talked to a family member in five minutes? “Too disgustingly codependent,” they will scoff, and then I’ll start analyzing my actions, but realizing that it’s not healthy to dissect everything we say and do.
“Why haven’t you talked to your sibling?” I nosily asked one woman.
“On October 23, 1999 at 1:28 P.M. she made an insulting remark to me and unless she apologies I’ll never ever speak to her again!”
“If you don’t mind, what was the remark?” I pressed on.
You’d think I was asking her to explain the Pythagorean Theory, for Pete’s sakes, by the dazed expression that swept over her face. “Look, she snapped, “that was over seven years ago; do you really expect me to remember it now?! But let me tell you that it deeply hurt my feelings.”
“You’ll be hurting a lot more if something happens to your sister, and you’ve wasted all those years without making amends.”
“Why must I make the first move?”
“The bigger person always does,” I reassured her.
Sometimes I talk so high and mighty when I myself let a day or two go by without contacting a loved one because I’m miffed about something. But maybe that’s the difference; I let a day, not months, and never ever years, go by without extending the olive branch. And who doesn’t sometimes want to shove that olive branch you-know-where, but that’s such a contradiction to what the olive branch symbolizes. Besides, adults must display maturity and that means composure and dignity at all times, because isn’t that what it means to be an adult?
Like I should know.
On Mother’s Day and Father’s Day my daughters and son expect a card from me to them, claiming they helped raised me, their mother. I suppose I should be offended by such an evaluation, but with your own blood you must allow huge margins for the sake of preserving the delicate fabric of the family. And don’t think I’m not aware that for the sake of maintaining peace, an awful lot of people have to pop down pills for high blood pressure and migraines. The ones prone to hysteria, they have to lock themselves into their bedroom and practically stuff the mattress down their throats to keep their loved ones from hearing them scream. Some have to limp to chiropractic offices for lower back pain caused by stress, and sometimes they pay an extremely high price for keeping silent and a falsely serene façade and then wham! A stroke or heart attack hits them for stifling how they really feel. Stroke and heart attack, please hold that thought, and by the way, have a happy, healthy Holiday Season!
The End