Who were your bullies in life?

 I suppose everyone has a bully in their life even if you were a giant like me.  Now the question is: did they make me a better person or a worse person, secure or insecure?  

It always seemed to me that the big kids and especially those older than me were bullies including my brother, Larry.  Especially when I went to Shidler in the 8th grade there were a lot of folks older who wanted to push me around because I was big for my age.  Luckily a lot of folks caught up with me in size by the time I got into high school.  But one event stands out to me that is outside of this topic.  One of those upper classmen wanted to fight me and kept pushing for a fight during a basketball game.  But my hero was a fellow classmate and a lot smaller guy than me.  It was Ricky Cottle who stopped the person and told the bully to step outside with him and fight.  Well, it did happen, and Rick won the fight.  I was not bothered again by that bully.  I think Rick became the tallest person to me, tall in character.

Back to the point of the story.  I am going to propose to you that being bullied and being intimidated can actually turn out to be a good thing.  I was never one to pick a fight nor did I want to.  But out of those times I learned to persevere and that bullies have a self-image problem bigger than mine.  When I say persevere, I mean that I learned how to win without a physical fight.  In fact, this reminds me of a friend that was extremely short and got bullied a lot.  One of his bullies was being aggressive and my friend told him to pile up his money and stand on it and he would do the same.  He then told the bully let's see who is taller now.  I thought that was hilarious, but it made a point.  Now I am not saying money is everything, but I am saying that you do not measure a man by his self-centered bully pulpit.

Sure bullies are not a good thing, but overcoming is what counts.  It does not matter in life how many times you get knocked down, it only matters how many times you get back up.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• Character is what counts in a person
• Doing the right thing is the right thing
• Persevere, get up one more time than you get knocked down and you will be a winner

Thanks for listening,

gary.olson@finaciti.com

thepioneerman.blogspot.com