Now, if this doesn't prove that I'm a bad person, then probably nothing will. (Stay tuned for another post in a few days' time, though.)
But whenever someone about my age talks about a traumatic experience from their childhood that I also experienced, I find it amusing. For example, let's say that I and my three cousins were spending our summer vacation at the family summer house one time when we were kids and someone made blueberry pie while we were out rowing in the bay; when we got back from our escapades, the others had eaten the whole thing without saving any pie for us.
If one of my cousins in this scenario would, twenty or twenty-five years later, still bring this up and feel grudge about it towards the greedy pie eaters, I couldn't help but laugh - even if my cousin actually believed this to have been a traumatic experience.
Obviously the story above is fictional, but perhaps you get the point: that some people never get over their childhood traumas, and if they happen to open up about it to me, there's a good chance I find it amusing, especially if it's something small and silly as the example above. (Of course I'd never find things like physical abuse amusing - I'm not that evil.)
It's as if some people get a rush or a high of sorts when they hold on to their traumas and verbalize them - as if by acknowledging that the trauma existed then and still weighs them, they somehow "get back" at the person who hurt them all those years ago.
Even if they're not voicing the trauma to the one who caused it, but to me!
Perhaps it's their way of getting back at them, getting revenge even, and then being able to let it go.
Or something like that.
Whatever the mechanics, I get entertainment, so everyone wins.
RK out.
P.S. Because I often get work done while sitting in cafes, I sometimes overhear older ladies talk about their childhood traumas. Now, that's just sad.
