Sarah Needs To Laugh

Rebecca is not going to change. People change only through a crisis, and Rebecca is hardly in one. She has married a millionaire, is remodeling his big house on the river, and is driving a big, red convertible. She's at the top of her game. Plus, the hatefullness is very old and applies to other people besides Sarah. She's used in on Sarah's younger son, our brother Ron, and me all in one evening over the phone. I also saw that hatefullness expressed toward her husband Lucky at dinner almost thirty years ago at a restaurant on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. She said so many despicable things to him that I marveled that Lucky did not stick his fork into her right there at the table. Believe me, that can happened: recently, The Enforcer had all the vitriol he was going to take from Gloria at the dinner table and poked his fork into her chest.
I will try to get Sarah to see that having herself, Rebecca, and me in one place is bringing together the critical mass for an explosion. I can easily see myself trying to intervene between Rebecca and Sarah and trying to bring other people into it. Rebecca is very appearance conscious and would not want her loathesome behavior known by those who count to her. I could do that.
If we don't want me social-working Hayden Lake for an intervention on Rebeca, and mother having a heart attack, then Sarah needs to establish an acceptable equilibrium with Rebecca. The only way I think she can do that is to be able to think and talk assertively when Rebecca confronts her. The best way to do that is indirectly through the use of absurdity. Sarah can laugh at the absurdity of what Rebecca says by making it more absurd, laughing all the way. Meanwhile, I can work on not being the protective big brother by laughing at the absurdity of my sister Sarah, a summa cum laude college graduate, allowing herself to be flummoxed by Rebecca, a little community college graduate. I don't need to get into an undifferentiated ego mass with Sarah; if she wants to co-exist with Rebecca, she can do it. I've pointed the way, now she, not I, needs to do the work. In writing this, I think I have worked out the best advice not only for Sarah but for myself.
I've mentioned Captain (UK) James Ashcroft writing "Making A Killing." He also claims that he has read somewhere that 15,000 American rounds are fired to kill one enemy in Iraq. Finally, he asks how many of us know that after Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990, and allied forces were beginning their build-up in the Gulf, Osama bin Laden offerred the use of al Quada forces to Saudi Arabia to use to fight Saddam's forces. Saudi Arabia declined, preferring to use American might.
Thank you for your readership and please come back. Peter "Two-Guns" Nickerson at peternickerson12@yahoo.com.