Reply #108: Another analogy [View All]

My grandmother did not get along with her younger sister. They were always carping at each other and digging up trivial stuff from fifty years ago. My mother picked up my grandmother's attitude and was always making snide remarks about my great-aunt.

One day, my grandmother was brooding about something that her sister had said to her the previous week, so she picked up the phone, called her sister, and started scolding her without even saying "hello."

Now I knew that my great-aunt was a real pain at times, and sometimes her sense of drama overcame her devotion to the truth, but who doesn't have their moments? We got along just fine. We'd go to lunch together.

My grandmother and mother were mystified about why my great-aunt seemed to like me.

And I responded, "Maybe it's because I don't call her up for the sole purpose of criticizing her."