Day 59: My name is Inigo Montoya. . .

On a random note, if you go back and look at the careers of Disney people who've done voices for great great movies like Cinderella, Snow White, Swan Princess (might as well be Disney), Aladdin, etc., and other famous movies like Princess Bride, those people didn't have long careers. It's like one hit wonders and then a life of mediocrity in things that you'll never hear from them again, the exception being Joseph Gordon-Levitt who was able to use Angels in the Outfield as a stepping stone for his future career, where he's gone to be in Inception, (500) Days of Summer, that abomination they call G. I. Joe, and a few others. Who am I kidding. Go look him up.

Anywhoze. I chose the above quote because you can finish it, and it gives a pretty good idea as to what my topic is. But for nostalgia's sake, let's relive the moment.

Some person who is unimportant: "Who are you?"

"My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

We laugh at the silliness because he says it over again while getting stabbed and while stabbing this other dude. It's like with every jab he has to repeat himself like his opponent has short term memory or something. He could start adding phrases like "Hey, just a reminder, my name. . ." or "In case you forgot, my name. . ." etc. but he doesn't. He repeats the same darned thing over and over again because he's not worried about the Dirty Socks Principle. He's too focused on vengeance to really care about much. Well, other than vengeance that is. (He was going after the Six-Fingered Man who killed his father and he wanted revenge. Short relevant plot summary for those of you who have been so deprived as to never see the Princess Bride. That's all you need to know really for this purposes of this blog post. Well, that and it was funny. Moving on.)

I don't really know where this came from as far as popularity goes, but it seems like the popular thing to do when you get hurt is to hurt back. Whether that's posting flirty messages on the wall of a girl who your recent ex-girlfriend was really scared of you going with, calling someone a (man, only wanting to use nice language is hard in this post) host of bad names I won't type out here because they called you a few choice words of their own, egging their house because they rolled yours, or wanting to get even in some way I can't think of because I've just always been crying too much or not caring enough to really think of ways to get them back. I leave that for the experts.

It's a mess. It starts some all out war with someone that you probably called a friend, boyfriend/girlfriend, or some other really cool title to symbolize how tight you guys were in like the last 24 hours. So they go from friend to [INSERT BAD NAME HERE]. Split seconds.

"Oh you know Bobby right?"
"Heck yea! Bobby my man. We tight."

"Well, he just told me you were a [This is going to get boring]."

"WHY I OUGHTA. . ."
I'll let Richard finish that one. Because Ricky and Bobby seem to go together, if you listen to Will Ferrell.

I say all this to say, yes it's common, yes it's natural to want revenge, yes I've probably gotten back at someone at some point in my life which if I were to repeat that action after I post this would make me look like a huge hypocrite, but I find it silly now. The real measure of how much you care for a person isn't how much you guys click, but how you treat them when you're treated unfairly.

There are a lot of implications in this, so I'll try to keep it simple. I don't encourage revenge. I can't tell you, my reader, to not seek revenge any more than I can tell my right thumb to travel up my arm and stick out of my neck for the rest of my natural life (And to be clear, I can't do that, which means I can't tell you to not seek revenge). This is simply my advice. in my experience, you heal better if you don't seek revenge, and you let bygones be bygones.

NOTE: (Because I've been in groups where this was a "rule") IF YOU FIND YOURSELF IN AN ABUSIVE SITUATION OF ANY SORT, GET OUT FIRST, AND IF NECESSARY CONTACT THE AUTHORITIES. GOD DID NOT CALL YOU TO STAY IN THAT SITUATION, HE CALLED YOU TO LOVE THEM WHICH YOU CAN SAFELY DO IN WITNESS PROTECTION.