Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The Pent Umbrage of the Tempy, Part II

1. Your loony friend has been acting strangely as of late, as if nagged by some incessant dissatisfaction.
2. Inexplicably, your loony friend ceases to act dissatisfied. Suddenly, your loony friend’s mood has shifted from unhappiness to something else, something elated, ecstatic, excited, enthusiastic. The reason for your loony friend's change is simply not clear…What has happened? Has anything happened?
3. Your loony friend tries to explain—is very happy to tell you all about it. But none of what your loony friend says makes sense…This new agitated state is even more unsettling than the previous sadness, and it is even more worrisome. You wonder if your loony friend may be going crazy. Maybe your loony friend was crazy all along--first depresssed, now manic. What your loony friend describes in such nonsensical terms, excitedly as if a great discovery, your common sense tells you is useless.
4. Your loony friend finds your incomprehension a barrier to continuing friendship. Your loony friend’s outburst of elation appears tempered by your unwillingness to buy in...Your incomprehension is a dark cloud on your friend's bright sunny new day. Your loony friend feels a friend would easily understand. You don't understand and therefore you must not be a friend. You don't want to be your loony friend's enemy, but that's the way your loony friend is starting to treat you. You do have to admit it isn't much of a friendship when you don't like or appreciate what your friend now regards as of key importance.
5. It’s impossible to argue with your loony friend about all of this—what would you be arguing about? You don’t even know. Is your friend crazy or stupid? Can you convince your friend to "calm down"? Can you deal with this new eccentric behavior by being tolerant, or would you better serve your loony friend by treating this seriously, by contacting professional help?

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Haha, very funny post ..

Yusef, I see two glaring faults in the thinking of that post.

The first is: is the friend reaction to his discovery healthy or not?The fact that he rely heavily on you to share his "discovery" for him to feel happy about it, is not healthy.

The second:

"You do have to admit it isn't much of a friendship when you don't like or appreciate what your friend now regards as of key importance."

Whynot? If you can only be friends with people who are like yourself .. that is a problem.

To correct the situation, practice enjoy something even if your friends dont enjoy the same thing. you can stil be friends. Dont demand your friends to like what you like in all cases.


Christoffer

6:57 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The third glaring fault in the thinking of the mentioned post:

"It’s impossible to argue with your friend about all of this—"

Dont argue with your friends about the things they like!

Rather take joy that they have something they enjoy, and acknowledge their interest.

Christoffer

7:01 AM  

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