Some folks in your family have an evil mean streak.
I tend to think it's due to my looking less Hebrew and more, shall we say...Teutonic. They will never forgive me for one half of who I am and this in spite of my stating that I am 100% American who is made of 50/50 Catholic and Jew. Cashew.
My older brother has thought of joining here. I told him I was fine with it but reminded him of how I would toss all of them around (once I began weight training) when their puberty driven attempts to rile me with ridicule got the better of them. I would have drive a long way to get to him now and by that time I would have long forgotten what I was "upset" about.
In general that is how it is with me. I can remember a genuine insult or injury for decades and have used them many times to fuel my training. One kid that I grew up with was so much larger than I and he thought I wanted to "date" a girl in our neighborhood that he liked. I just wanted to play basketball in her family's driveway. He easily slammed me on the ground and then literally pounded a stick into the dirt with the back of my skull.
I went back there some 30+ years later and stopped in at his mom and dad's and his mom was flabbergasted that it really was skinny, little, four-eyed Scott. I told her to tell her meanest son that I was looking for him and I had a bundle of sticks I wanted his help with. His younger brother later told me on the phone that when his mom told his brother what I looked like he refused to meet me.
He used to pick on his little brother too as we were good friends. He and I had a laugh and I assured him that I meant his brother no harm. He said he knew that but would continue to tell his brother I was out for "revenge".
Time may not heal all wounds but it does allow a man time to think rather than just feel. What was that line from Captain America? A weak man knows the value of strength as well as that of compassion?
