Traces of Pink Piddy Paws

Robbin is the quote picker this week and I’m here to say – it’s a good one!  
She posted all the  “fine print” on her blog, in case you need to know it:  My Level of Awareness

“Being powerful is like being a lady; if you have to tell people you are,
you aren’t.”   ~ Margaret Thatcher

Just like Trixie,I immediately thought of the “Lady” aspect of this quote. However, I’m not a Lady of the South and I could only comment on the aspects of a woman who has moved INTO the South and seen into the “private club” of Ladies.  But…it’s not the direction my  heart wanted to take me on this one.

Nope – my heart immediately screamed “Bully” and what that means to me.
I could have gone with the “With Great Power comes Great Responsibility” but no….NO, I think “bully” pretty much sums it up.

According to Miriam Webster online, definitions for bully are:

Main Entry: ³bully
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): bul·lied; bul·ly·ing
transitive verb
1 : to treat abusively
2 : to affect by means of force or coercion
intransitive verb : to use browbeating language or behavior : BLUSTER
synonym see INTIMIDATE

 a : a blustering browbeating person; especially : one habitually cruel to others who are weaker b : PIMP
3 : a hired ruffian

 I’ve experienced “bullying” all my life.
I was the smart kid, the short fat girl, the geek with the glasses and partial plate (a fake front tooth) since I can remember.

It wasn’t until I got into High School that I finally learned to stand on my own.
At 16 years of age, I found myself without a home, without a family and without a safety net.
I think I sort of “cracked” one day and decided that I just wasn’t going to take it anymore.
I can still remember that blustery day in the parking lot of school.
The girl that wanted to beat me up was easily over 6 feet tall and weighed more than 300 pounds, she was a BIG girl.
I stood my ground when she approached, having announced her intentions to beat me up for something that I had “supposedly” said.
I calmly took off my glasses, handed them to a friend and clenched my fists.
I looked her straight in the eyes and said “You can try and beat me up, but I’m going to make it damn hard for you.”
She was quite taken aback by that.

She didn’t pummel me that day.
Instead, she talked to me, found out that it had been her supposed “friends” who had been making the harmful remarks and from that day on she and I were friends.

That was almost 20 years ago and I can still remember the cold rain blowing into my face and her slightly blurry figure stalking towards me.

Today, I find bullies are still in my life and it just boggles my mind.

People who garner power and use it abusively are, by definition, bullies.

Why are they compelled to try and bully people around?

What is missing from their lives that they feel the need to use their “power” to make someone else hurt?

That’s all it is, really. 
Grown adults that make other people hurt.

My question is this – Does it make them feel better about themselves to beat someone else down?

It’s the only reason I can think of for someone to be a bully.

And that makes me sad for them.
That they have so little in their own lives that they have to find pleasure in causing someone else pain?
That’s sad.

 Well folks – I think you are seeing that it’s not so easy to bully me anymore.

To all of you who want to try, I say now as I did 20 years ago -

“You can try and beat me up, but I’m going to make it damn hard for you.”