Thursday, October 15, 2009

Be careful what you sow!

In this blog inspired by the “For Better or For Worse” comic Strip by Lynn Johnston the wife had, against her husbands advice, gone out of her way to play matchmaker between her best friend and her own visiting brother. Now after they are late coming back from their date, the wife is in a right royal tizz.
And the following agitated discourse to her husband is spread across the three panels: “ My brother is somewhere with my best friend…. So where ARE they?” Next comes: “I bet he’s swept her off her feet… I bet he’s taking advantage of her vulnerability!" Finally, turning to her husband, she says plaintively: “How could he do this to me!!”
Again I know that this is just a comic strip cartoon, but many people are like that in real life too.
They interfere, no matter how good-intentionally in some things that it would just be best not too, and let nature take its course. However they and often we do interfere, only to have it go all pear shaped on us, and then try and lay the blame on the other participants and not where it largely lays: With us.
So today, if you are in a similar situation, except what blame is due you, make amends where you can and don’t do it again. Likewise if you are not yet in such a situation but tempted to intervene, think again and make sure that your intended intervention is in fact the right decision to make or whether you should just step back and let the natural course run its natural course, without your well-intentioned but often unhelpful and possibly hurtful intervention. True sometimes it is to the best if we do intervene, but not always, so always carefully assess the options and go with the one which will be both most helpful and least hurtful to the person you are trying/supposedly helping!

1 comment:

Lynx217 said...

Sometimes it's just better to keep your mouth shut, whatever the situation is.