“You know she never loved you. She just used you and if you are smart you’ll walk away.”
We’re standing in Terminal A at DFW and I am listening to a pair of middle school age girls Facetiming with some other kid.
I haven’t any interest in any of this and am grateful that my own children aren’t so self absorbed as to talk like that in public.
The thing is this sort of thing isn’t limited to the girls or as uncommon as I would like it to be. I regularly am invited to listen to speakerphone conversations in supermarkets, malls and occasionally restaurants.
I have yet to decide if that is more or less annoying than being forced to hear one side of a phone conversation.
The Reliability Of The Unreliable
Certain circumstances and occurrences have reminded me of the reliability of the unreliable.
There are moments where I consider asking for the mythical helping hand and don’t because some people aren’t willing or capable of giving it.
It is a hard road to hoe when you have to do much of it on your own but sometimes it is easier to do it that way because you don’t worry about having to check and recheck that hand that is supposed to catch you.
Better to plan for it not to be there and if by some chance you are surprised it is a pleasant one not something that leads to a bruised ass.
Sometimes you have to accept that you are going to hold the links together so that the chain doesn’t break because otherwise it might not happen.
You can’t go off of past promises or guarantees because present actions have proven those to be unreliable and until they reliably unreliable prove they’re different you’re stuck.
Or maybe it is more accurate you are free from the conflict that might come if they proved you wrong.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
The inner circle grows smaller due to need and lack of action.
Some come sniffing around because they are interested in getting answers to questions about things they don’t understand.
“If you don’t ask, I won’t tell” is the mantra some suggest I have adopted never recognizing that not all are entitled to answers.
Simple questions don’t require answers. There is no obligation to share thoughts, ideas or information.
What you consider a two way street might be a road that ends in “Do Not Enter” and protesting the unfairness isn’t likely to do more than aggravate your chances of gaining admittance, assuming that any exist at all.
Sometimes you slip into the category of mistake and that is where you get to reside. Burn bridges with care and or understand there are consequences.
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