There’s so much bullying of thought going on in today’s world. People seem to want to tell you what’s best for you—they want you to conform to their way of thinking, impose their will on you, be in control of your experience. This happens in families, in the workplace, in politics, on a national, and even an international scale.
I know what bullying is like, seeing I experienced it almost every day that I spent in junior high school. I was a chubby little kid from the country whose dad found employment in a rather large city. I ended up in what might be called an “inner-city” school. Most of the kids in the school were pretty street-savvy, having grown up in an urban environment. In the country, kids were more likely to have experienced farm life and values. I knew nothing about surviving in the streets. Each day was misery. Each school day consisted of taunts, being made fun of, being made to look foolish in front of other students and even the teachers. I dreaded going to school.
One day, getting off the school bus, I was bullied and badly beaten up. When I got home my dad realized just how bad the situation had become, and being a “man’s man,” he decided I needed to learn how to defend myself. So our evenings became training sessions in the art of self-defense. In the basement, after supper, I learned jujitsu (taken from a training book on that martial art that my dad had purchased numerous years ago), took up weight-lifting, learned something from my father about boxing, and I enrolled in a karate course at the local YMCA. After graduating from high school I joined the Marines. The idea was to toughen up—to be able to take care of myself and, if necessary, defend others. I really wanted to know how to avoid getting picked on or harassed, how to stand up to the bullying mentality.
