Spiel

He used to give me this spiel.

He used to list off all the lessons he'd learned from the various hardships in his life. Like, boo hoo, you've suffered so much and the rest of us have silver spoons sticking out of our freaking mouths.

He used to say I should use my gifts to help people, like power automatically meant responsibility.

And I used to say, Maybe they oughta help themselves.

Then he'd give me this sad look, like I was a puppy who'd peed on the carpet again.

The truth is, he got on my nerves pretty bad, with his superior generosity of heart. But another truth is, I miss him. A lot. He was the best thing that ever happened to me.

That's the lesson I learned. That's my hardship. Boo hoo, right?