Winners Laugh

Sarah asked for my advice on how she should proceed with Mom - give her peace and quiet or confront her about the two of us not being invited to visit her at the same time. Actually, it is our sister Rebecca who doesn't want Sarah and me out to Hayden Lake, Idaho at the same time. This is because Rebecca knows there will be hell to pay from me if she is abusive toward Sarah. Mother is taking her cues from Rebecca because Rebecca is taking care of her and including her into her family. This is an old pattern of behavior as Mom was Dad's - whoops! Rooster's - doormat as he took care of her when he was alive. She was a stay-at-home mother to six kids. Mom is very secretive about her upbringing, but I learned from a neighbor of my grandparents, after my grandmother died, that my grandmother would have arguements with my grandfather, collapse onto the floor, and men from the neighborhood would have to come in and carry her upstairs to bed. Mother did not like me finding this out so it's obvious that she is used to hiding dysfunctioning.
I need to give Sarah advice. I think advice is terribly under-rated. Lord knows, I would have benefitted from it. Remember, I had a father -whoops! a rooster- who sometimes would crow with glee when I was having problems. He was no advice-giver. I think the first thing I will tell Sarah is that winners find a way to laugh while losers keep their frowns. The next thing I will say is that we need to be very honest, and that means recognizing that I may make trouble for Rebecca in her hometown of Hayden Lake, Idaho, if she is mean to Sarah. Several times I've been railroaded by various government officials and have been unable to protect myself both because I could not afford a lawyer, but more importantly, because of my great fear of public speaking. I have a great deal of experience from these misadventures and would not hesitate in using my experience to try to stop Rebecca's abuse. I would go to Rebecca first and then her husband, but if that failed, I might try to organize a family intervention. But I don't have much hope for that as my family is very timid, detached, and cold. Money is the standard, and the answer to every problem. Anything else is shrugged off. Money talks and everything else walks. So I would probably go elsewhere too, possibly to Rebecca's minister. Rebecca runs a Christian private school. In my last call to Mom, she blamed her heart palpitations on Sarah's two-day withdrawal into her room after Susan scolded her for not taking care of Mom. Notice that Mom did not blame her heart palpitations on Rebecca who came into Mother's home and falsely accused Mother's guest - Sarah - of not taking care of Mother. If Sarah's reaction to Rebecca's attacks caused Mother to have palpitations, can you imagine what Mom would have when she saw my reaction to Rebecca's attacks?
I will continue this next posting.
There were a couple more assertins made by Captain James Ashcroft (UK): One was that in the early years of the occupation of Iraq, if a U.S. Army convoy was shot at, the American soldiers would immediately lay down a circle of automatic fire around their convoy. They would riddle cars, chickens, dogs, and children with their bullets. It didn't matter. This was in the book "Making A Killing." Ashcroft's first explanation for why the U.S. went into Iraq is that in 1999 Iraq stopped selling oil for the dollar and asked for Euros. This caused the Euro to get stronger, and started a policy that other nations might follow. This would have jepordized the American dollar. To back this up, Ashcroft notes that one of the first things the coalition forces did in Iraq was to change the trading in Euros back to American dollars. It is interesting to see what people outside the American box, so to speak, say about us who are inside the box.
I hope you have enjoyed your visit here today, and as they say in the South,
Y'all come back now, you hear! Peter "Two-Guns" Nickerson at peternickerson12@yahoo.com.