Leverage, Questions & Answers From Life

“How can you just sit there and act as if what she just did to us doesn’t hurt?” Elena complains to Lois as tears flow while sitting on one of the park benches, after taking a break from their exercise walk around the park.

Lois eased back into their past with a guitar in her hand, playing melodies of pain and pleasure. Joy and sorrow. Love and hate. Cruelty and kindness. Understanding and indifference. Thoughtlessness and consideration. Wisdom and folly. Life and death and so much more.

Lois consoled Elena, “You forget that when she had COVID-19, I risked my life and went into her home and stayed with her child while she stayed in a hotel. We didn’t want that baby getting COVID-19.”

“She didn’t get it, but you got it from her because you tested negative before going to her home,” Elena refreshed her memories. “She still treated us like dirt, and you don’t behave as if her cruelty didn’t hurt you. Because it hurt me.”

“That is because I think of her cruelty towards me as leverage. I refuse to stop being kind,” Lois explained.

“Why?” Elena demands.

“I don’t want karma to negatively have my phone number or address on speed dial. Girl, don’t you know that karma never misses an address!” Lois notified.

Absorbing her power of words, with a touch of reality, Elena asked, “Leverage for what? She and her crew already think of us as filth.”

“That comes under leverage,” Lois states.

“Leverage for what?” Elena repeats.

“They know we have a soft heart and have a problem saying no. But sometimes, life hands us the answers to their demands our heart should have said no to,” Lois elaborates.

“And how does life do that?”

“We were always good to them no matter what?” Lois baited her.

“True,” Elena agrees, the memories pulling her back.

“They often complimented us about our kindness and honesty.”

“True.”

“How we are the only two honest people they know.”

“True again,” Elena agrees.

“Remember last year when Denise wanted money to borrow and came to us?”

“Yeah,” Elena dragged her words as the memory slowly ignited her anger.

“She was desperate and knew that we were the only ones there for her in the past. She thought we forgot that she owed us. We had the money, but we told her no,” Lois eased her down Recall Retreat.

“Damn!” Elena exclaimed as the fire turned to better understanding blended with reality. “So, you are saying that when they are cruel to you now, it’s often leverage for when they forget and want to repeat their vicious acts of thoughtlessness in the future!”

Lois giggled staring at her best friend in shock then shared, “damn girl you put a lot of thought into this one. But that’s one way. Remember, some of them deserved forgiveness.”

“Not her,” Elena shoots back.

“In life, many of us treat the good people in our lives terribly. They remove themselves and we go on and never find the kindness and love they gave us from anyone else. Some will want it back and return for what they lost. Their action in the past has handed their victim leverage to forgive or flee,” Lois enlightened.

With a big smile, Elena reached out hugging Lois, “Now I understand. And as long as we stay kind and honest, we win. But how can we when their cruelty won’t stop?”

Lois stares at her, feeling her pain, then shares, “Her cruel action is leverage for me. It aids in me making decisions without the help of my heart.”

“Yeah,” Elena admits. “They know we think with our hearts and don’t know how to say no.”

“Also, her cruel actions remove all regrets from my heart, as it was her repeated acts of thoughtlessness that gave me the strength to say no,” Lois explained.

Staring at Lois, Elena shares in understanding, “So we don’t really have to get our hearts involved sometimes. Because their cruelty and inconsiderate actions towards us over and over is leverage/answer to their demands.”

Smiling, Lois agrees, “Life isn’t as difficult and painful as many humans make it out to be. Some humans do provide others with answers to their own questions that involved cruelty and greed.”

Many of us have been here, where we were good to someone who was cruel to us. We move on and they find themselves in the future and want to come back, unaware that their thoughtless actions of the past are leverage/answers for some of us with a soft heart to forgive or flee.

The answers to demands humans impose upon us often rest in their actions, choices, and decisions. You need to look with more than two eyes.

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.