The Ramblepost

J seems to be in a particularly unsunny mood this morning. She maintains that this is not true. Very well, I will believe her. Puppies'n Sunshine.

I do sometimes (often) wonder what it takes to make someone feel right about things that are not under your control. Maybe the whole effort is just a waste of time. J, reading that previous sentence, told me that it was. But accepting that leaves me with a bit of a quandary, in the sense that I feel both morally obligate and emotionally compelled to try and get people feeling good almost always.

Which isn't to say that I'm a stunning success at that, but again -I do try. So maybe doing so is actually more of a pretentious thing than the supportive maneuver it's intended to be? That is, in the sense that you feel A, I think it would be best if you felt B, I try to get you to feel B by doing things to try to tweak your emotional state. Or is it you feel A, you really would be happier if you felt B and I'm trying to get you to that spot and therefore that's a good thing?

Seems like it would really depend on the situation, and differentiating between the many environmental factors that tip the classification one way or the other is a matter of skill and sensitivity that I'd really hope a) I've built and b) I can keep on building. Very difficult thing, when I think about it.

What do you prefer to do when you see someone down? Let them 'work through it' or try to alleviate some of the gloom? I'm pretty sure that despite the technical nuances of it all, most people prefer one path over the other on a general basis. It would really interest me to know if that was correct and if so, what the more prevalent approach is.

To lighten the mood of the ramblepost (again, coined it myself), I leave you with an unattributed quote, overheard today standing in the coffee line at Saxby's.

Random Gtown Univ. Girl to her friends: Ohmigod. I had a dream last night that Saxby's raised its prices. It was... SO.... STRESSFUL.

Said with accompanying appropriate traumatized facial expression. Let's hear it for delicate constitutions and lotsa money to burn.