Al got me thinking about scraps in grade school. I remember my first one in third grade where I got popped in the eye before I even expected it and the fight was over. Another one that lasted a whole week after school.
But I remember in grade school, there was one quiet kid that got picked on. He was big, he was careful not to offended when he spoke and he didn’t fight back. He tried to fit in, he tried to be accepted. At times he was tolerated, but generally he was ridiculed for his efforts.
I remember him saying that his mom had taught him that it was “wrong” to fight. That statement alone is probably reason one why matriarchal societies collapse and single mom homes are the reason “The Great Experiment” is bubbling over the way it always does.
Not that matriarchies aren’t extremely violent, but the men that would defend a society have been so brainwashed against their best interests that they won’t and the men that are violent are in it for themselves.
He seemed proud that he didn’t fight.
The interesting thing is he was seen as bumbling and fat. And he might have been bumbling, but he wasn’t fat, but he was big.
So it went for years.
Until one day.
Kids were jumping on his back and he brushed them off and he kept saying “Stop it.” The boys laughed when he said it, running and jumping on him.
Then something happened.
He snapped.
He bellowed in rage and started beating on his antagonists. They took swings at him, but he didn’t seem to notice when he got hit.
It was primal, it was furious.
And I never forgot the look of rage on that boys face.
He got in other fights after that.
He would probably end in Juvie hall these days.
It is good to remember though that just because people act a certain way for a long time, that they seem to accept their lot in life, that they will take the abuse heaped upon them, that things can change in a moment and when they do, they are often dramatic and unexpected.
