Dear Sue:

You wrote in your last post: “I can learn a little bit from everyone as there is no one simple, cut and dry solution to my problem”

True, I do learn from everyone, but often what I learn is not what the person is trying to teach me.

Critical thinking is crucial for our human life in this complex world. With all the information and misinformation, opinions and facts, beliefs and bare reality- we have to accept some and reject some.

You wrote that there is no “one simple, cut and dry solution” to your problem. That depends on how you define the problem. If the problem is: Sue has been bullied by her older sister for sixty years and is still being bullied. Then there is, says I, one simple, cut and dry solution: you no longer expose yourself to her bullying and abuse. Zero contact with abusive person.

If the problem is: I want contact with abusive sister’s grandchildren (which seems to be what stands in your way to accepting the simple, cut and dry solution?), then there may be a solution to that which does not negate the above solution, the zero contact.

anita