Pony: Things to know about my sister before you marry her: Pt. II
10.22.2003
Be nice to people (or you'll regret it)
While Jackie can do hilarious send-ups of people deserving ridicule, she will defend the underdog to the death.
I may have told this story before, but when I was a kid, she would ask me about the kid in my class that people teased. Usually it was a kid of recent immigrants.
She would instruct me to befriend them the next day, and because Jackie's word was law in my world, I would do so.
God fobid I should ever be perceived to be teasing or taking advantage of someone in my peer group. I would get a talking-to that was so intense, I would feel a stone of regret in my belly for days.
But the lesson mostly stuck. Be nice. Just always be nice. But especially be nice to the person no one else is being nice to. Because you can.
