Dear Jessica Brennan,
When you meet someone kind, how do you treat them in return? You’re kind, right? However, when you meet someone mean and judgy and manipulative, you run, correct? But if you have no choice but to be in their company, you tend to meet old vile Mr. Judgy-Pants-Know-it-All with less of a warm and fuzzy approach. For one thing, you don’t trust him.
I have noticed that bullies come in many varieties. Some are obvious, and the world has seen much of this in the last few years. Some are harder to spot because they endlessly play the victim card, but they still are nasty, albeit often passive-aggressively so. Unfortunately, almost all of them are not nearly as smart as they think. If they knew that they get away with their actions purely because people find them too pathetic and irrelevant to engage with, it would embarrass them, or maybe not – who knows what they think?
The one thing that always surprises me is how a bully behaves when the tables turn. They have been boldly unkind and judgmental without a care for another person’s feelings, and then when they lose the power and are on the receiving end of the unkindness, they start to bawl. And oh, how they cry.
In my head, I wonder how this could be. The bully taught the world how to treat them through their very actions, and yet they are surprised that karma comes after them and uses their own laws to exact justice on their sorry butt. They are always shocked, and I have to say that this shock, in and of itself, is a reward for those of us who have had to tolerate them. People do point and laugh because the bully has earned the disgrace.
In my experience, bullies always lose. It might take some time, but you can rely on this fact.
When I see the blubbering bully, I always think – “You set the rules of engagement. Stop bawling.”
Love,
Mum xo
