Life Handed Over

21^st January 2012

Dear Cassi,

   

Folks who have had life handed to them are generally screw ups. Then, I guess you can see that as well as I by now. I cannot say if it is because they never learned to appreciate what they have or if it is because they simply cannot empathies with others.

   

As you will recall, that bloated thing that calls itself my female sibling had $30,000 handed to her to buy a home. Then she asked for another $30,000 and I believed still wanted more. This after four years of checks every month to pay for her college and living off me rent free.

   

I recall the day I disowned her. “You are not my sister,” I said. “You’re dead to me.” I would not speak to her for ten months after that even as we lived in the same home.

   

When I finally spoke to her again, and I grant that was a mistake, she asked “How do you think that made me feel?” I stand by it today that I will think of her as no blood of mine. After her transgressions who of right mind would not feel the same.

   

In intimate relationships I recall the Professor saying that we often treat our own blood worst of all because we feel as if they will never leave us. If only we would learn to walk away from toxic people. My mother always told me “Treat friends like family, and family like friends.” Mom didn’t talk to her family much. They were a fighting bunch and still are so she kept a healthy distance.

   

I once heard an actor say that the people he knew who had trust funds set up for them are the folks who spend the most time messing up their life. Never having to work for a living does that apparently.

Stay safe, little sister

Richard Leland Neal