Susan Kelley
1 min readJan 5, 2022

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Sure, John.

Someone shared my writing so that the person reading it would feel hurt, that she would be embarrassed, angry, and upset. They shared it with her even though there was quite literally NO way in the world she ever would have come across my writing on her own. They wanted to be sure she would see it, guaranteeing that she'd know I wrote things she wouldn't like.

There was no potential "good" that could come from this.

Picture the spiteful child who sees her brother gleefully skipping school with his friends, saying, "Wait until I tell mom what you did; she'll definitely punish you then!" And so the child tells on her brother, only for the satisfaction of watching the mother mete out punishment.

The only reason to tell mother is the joy of watching another person's pain. Mother doesn't enjoy knowing her son skipped school; brother doesn't gain anything from being punished after a day of hooky, and in the end the sister has only the satisfaction of watching two people get hurt.

Schadenfreude is rarely satisfying.

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Susan Kelley
Susan Kelley

Written by Susan Kelley

Susan is a runner, a mom of 3 grown children, and an avid traveler. She writes about humans, and wrote a book about false accusations of sexual assault.

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