Monday, June 26, 2006

Of Friends and Foes

I have reached the conclusion that a lot of people in this world are as crazy as shithouse rats. I used to think it was just me. Not any more. I now think that I must actually be pretty damn sane. People will lie, cheat, steal, bully, plagiarize, impersonate, etc., and then get mad and call other people nuts (and worse) when they get caught. Go figure. They'll tell the same old story to the same group over and over again, ad nauseam, and it changes little from one retelling to the next. Or else, they'll tell the same story to two different groups with enough differences that it becomes obvious that one version is a lie. They'll needle people mercilessly, and then whine because somebody's picking on them. They'll brag ceaselessly when, truth be told, they have nothing whatsoever to brag about and would have looked much less foolish if they'd only kept quiet.

People do irrational things. I don't know why. I don't want to know why. You can't avoid it, not if you're going to stay connected to the Net. All you can do, I suppose, is toughen up and learn to shrug it off.

Why does it pain me so to be disappointed by people? Most of the time, they're not even people I really know. We meet people on the Net all the time with whom we connect. I know I'm not alone in this; anybody who's online probably experiences the same thing. You meet some new people, you start chatting, discover you have lots in common, you see eye to eye on the same issues, and you really begin to consider them friends. Until the day comes when they either shoot you in the foot, stab you in the back, or simply disappear. What? Their fundamental philosophy suddenly took a 360? They decided overnight that you suck? They concluded that your worst enemy was right about you after all? I don't get it. I try not to take it personally, try to keep it in perspective. I didn't, after all, really know them. That really doesn't do much to relieve the sting, though. And it does. It stings.

It's all just passing strange to me. It's going to happen. I know that. I'm not going to spend a lot of time worrying about any particular instance. I do wonder, though; sometimes perhaps more than is good for me. Thank God for real friends.

1 comment:

Scott said...

And I thought my dad was the only person who used the phrase "crazy as a shithouse rat." :) Hang in there--believe in good karma. Take a walk. Read something fabulous. Don't let one floating turd spoil the punch....

Er, or something. ;)