I have a story perhaps someone out there can relate to in some way somehow. There we are, my family, at the beach house. This is on Lake Huron, the inspiration for my dad to get a beach house for my family one day. Memories were had for him and memories were surely had for us. The only memory I have, however, is this one.
I came in from the beach to see family members standing around my cousin as she was crying. I'm sure there were many around her, but the only one who spoke to me (or even would speak to me) was my Aunt Peggi. Calling me evil. She called me evil. She said I was evil.
I was a kid. Not a child, but a kid. So, right there for me at the present time has me questioning her definition of evil. The defining moment in her eyes had to have been my cousin Katie crying over something I had said.
What I had said was that her towel was the perfect size for her. This was in response to "My towel is huge!" (or something like that). Katie had taken my response as an attack on her size. Katie was a big girl, and I knew she was a big girl. Perhaps my comment was a faux pas, but I don't care to defend it. Perhaps, to her, I called her "fat" or something, but there is absolutely no way in heaven or hell or anywhere in between did I mean to insult her. To this day, it's pretty well known that Katie and I get along really well. It was different back then, but not that different.
On the way home, I don't believe I was talked to. My parents and my sisters on a drive home in the dark. I had a lot to think about, but I don't remember and cannot imagine what was going through my head. What I do remember was my mom, once we had arrived home, giving me a book on the female menstrual cycle. Young adult ladies have to deal with crazy hormones and changing bodies. I remember thinking: "Aunt Peggi's not that young."
It became clearer later what my mom meant, but to this day I don't fully understand it. Men can be pretty ignorant about that sorta thing, I guess.
But we can rid ourselves of a little ignorance when it comes to the fact that kids have a right to be ignorant. We need to teach them the importance of being good people, therefore bullying is not to be tolerated, but ignorance truly needs to be avoided. Katie, when I look at things from her perspective, must have thought "fat" or "big" are descriptive words meaning ugly. Perhaps they are. Perhaps I knew that. These words I would go on to use for my sister. And in journals would refer to her as "The Fat One." However, I didn't say those words to my cousin Katie, nor did I mean them. Perhaps I learned something that day, but I was also dismissed as "evil." This was a title I earned only in my relationship to my sister.
Kids today. They can pass tests that adults couldn't. This is because adult education stops after high school. If we're lucky, college is an option, but it's not always an option. Driving tests, for instance, are a good example of an education that is easily passable. However, put those kids on the road, and their "accident" statistics are much higher than people ten years older. This is because of life experience. Something Michael Brown will never have, and something he was entirely lacking to begin with. He lived with his grandmother and wasn't treated well. Officer Wilson shot the 18-year-old 12 times to his death, and Aunt Peggi thinks this is justified. Perhaps because the 18-year-old was "evil."
But what is evil?
And what could be learned?
And what could be changed to rid the world of ignorance and evil?
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