Having dinner with my family, I joked about how introverted my husband is. Whenever I try to introduce him to my CrossFit family, he jokes that he doesn’t want to be friends with “those people”. Unfortunately, my sister latched onto that line: “I wouldn’t want to be friends with those people either.”
Me: “Why not? They’re normal people. Some of the nicest people I know.”
Sister: “They’re not normal people.”
This threatened to ignite a fire because I knew she meant it negatively. There’s something wrong with people who work out regularly and enjoy it, to her. Especially CrossFitters – we drank the Kool-Aid, we joined a cult. We’re not normal.
I changed the subject to avoid an argument we’ve had before, but in my head I was firing off retorts (starting with something I’ve wondered frequently when talking to her: “can’t you support my activity in something that obviously makes me happier?”). Until I realized that she was right. We aren’t normal. But perhaps not in the way she meant.
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