The Will To Destroy

I'm sure you've heard a horror story or two about how families change when it comes to inheritance. Many times close knit families become the biggest casualties. Those decades of family gatherings suddenly end never to happen again.

And then come the lawyers, smelling money like a pack of wolves closing in on their weak prey. The lawyers will tell you to fight for what's rightfully yours never disclosing they stand to gain the most.

So what drives families to fight over their loved ones final wishes? Greed? Sense of entitlement? Spouses sticking their noses in where it clearly does not belong?  Perhaps all of these things? I think it's more than that. I'd add emotion is the biggest driver of destruction.

Emotions like anger and vengeance come into play. Add to that jealousy, bitterness, and a need to reclaim a sense of importance, love, and self-esteem. You wonder how this has anything to do with money? How could it? But it does. If a kid feels unloved growing up this will haunt them through their lives and any opportunity to rebuke the offender will be seized upon.

I pity these people but I don't share their views. They are victims and victims don't go very far in life. They spend too much precious time feeling sorry for themselves. I've seen the lengths they'll go to, to get what they think is owed to them. Perhaps conspiring over coffee as their loved one is still warm and not quite dead. At all cost they will make things right for them even if it means tearing up a family.

I think the saddest thing of all is that rest of the family lose the right to grieve because they're caught up in a stalemate and nobody can move on until the victims get what they believe is rightfully theirs.