We all have our pebbles, Joe.
It’s what we decide to do with them.
In 8th and 9th grade, I was mercilessly bullied in high school. I was also portly at the time.
All day, every day, and I also saw this happen to others.
One person in particular drove it. He sat behind me in a number of classes and said cruel things all day long.
One day, he said one thing to many, so I turned around and punched him right in his face nice and hard in front of everyone.
He said that I was dead after school. Needless to say, I am still alive, and I was never bullied again.
I saw him in a bathroom in a French Quarter bar a number of years later. By this time I had grown to my adult size. I don’t think he wanted any part of me. He said Hi Chris how you doing man? I said fine Pat, and walked on.
Life gives us all pebbles. You can either carry them, or you can’t.
I know that for a fact.
I also know for a fact that some people deal with and manage thieir "pebbles" better than others.
I also know for a fact that some people who never learn to deal with them or get rid of them tend to carry around a lot more of them than others.
I also know for a fact that neither I, nor anybody else can really say how many more any person can deal with on any given day.
Which is why I suggest that maliciously dropping a pebble into another person's "pitcher," just to see how they react is never the right thing to do. I'm not talking about a drill sergeant who raises the stress level for the benefit of his trainees, or a demanding professor that puts an ill prepared student on the spot, or an employer that has to make a hard choice and lay somebody off...those all increase a person's stress and may feel like a bomb going off in the person's life at the time, but there is no malicious intent. I'm talking about simple unbridled meanness for the sake of hurting or humiliating another person. When you get right down to it, there's a touch of sadism involved there that's not much different than ripping the wings off a butterfly.