Kelly - James 3

Oh, the tongue.

I've just returned from spending a week with my little sister and my father's family...between those two temptations I've found that my tongue is not behaving the way I'd like it to. (Yeah, it's my tongue that's at fault, why would I take personal responsibility for it's behavior?)

My grandmother taught me to recite "Solitude" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox before I was 10 ("Laugh and the world laughs with you...). But her overwhelmingly cheerful attitude is coupled with the belief that brutal honesty can be a virtue. It's not something you find in New Englad very often...she informed us all in a very loud voice that I was looking tired, my sister was putting on weight, and my dad was getting really old and starting to bald. She also taught Benjamin a birthday song inolving the phrase "Horse's A**". She's cultivated 3 generations of people with rather thick skin.

I also spent 8 days with my little sister. And though we're adults now, 8 days is long enough to fall back into all the snide judgements we made about each other for 16 years.

When I'm around my family I'm a much quicker wit...the jokes come freely, I laugh a lot (often at myself). But once loosed a little, my tongue goes a little crazy. I can be hurtful. And I've noticed since returning to Boston that I'm generally more negative. My thoughts and words are generally "snarky."

My cousin has figured out how to work this world. She's moved back to Denver to raise her daughter around family. She laughs and celebrates with this crowd all the time, but is one of the most generally kind and supportive people I've ever met.