May
Odal’s Hard Side
Just as people can inherit good things, they can also inherit the bad. In the colloquial jargon of today, we talk of people who come with “baggage.” It may be fallout from past misdeeds or the emotional burdens of past tragedies. Baggage is something old that is carried along into new situations. Of course, the term has a totally negative connotation. Baggage is just a colorful way of saying burdens.
A cunningly wicked form of baggage is something we can inherit from childhood. An unpleasant upbringing is a horrid heritage. More often than not, the parents of a dysfunctional or abusive household are themselves products of the same kind of environment. They pass along the same bad things which they suffered. Unless the chain of wrongfulness is broken, this sad heritage keeps moving from one generation to the next.
Obviously, there are times when one’s heritage must be cut, like throwing old baggage into a dumpster. Nothing happens in a vacuum. Inheritance is usually a mix of good and bad, with the good predominant. Unfortunately, a few find that they have inherited more bad then good. That is when the chain of unfortunate inheritance must be broken.
