Mean Comments

There's a little bit of the "bitch" in all of us but Mary and I got talking last night about how some people will make the cruellest comments right to your face.  When that happens to me, I wonder what it is in that person that they have the compulsion to openly say the nasty things they are thinking.  Most of us might think nasty things but most of us have the sense to not say them out loud, especially to the person they're directed at.


It's usually said where no-one else can hear it and judge them so it's cowardly, too.  When someone speaks to you in such a way, you're usually so surprised that you don't have a good comeback but those words will fester in you forever.  Someone made a comment to me maybe 40 years ago about a couple of pounds I'd put on and it was so biting that I've never forgotten it.  It was said by someone who mattered very little to me, too, so words can hurt even if tossed at you by a person you don't think much of.


There are people in this world who get a kick out of bullying in that way so we can't really escape them.  Ann Landers used to have a perfect comeback for people who asked inappropriate questions.  She'd say, "Why would you ask me something like that?".  If nothing else, we could use the same comeback when accosted by mean comments.


"Why would you say something like that?" would put the mean person on the defensive and I bet they'd be scrambling for an answer to make themselves look like something other than the fool they are.