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Friday, June 16th, 2006 08:42 am
Ever get to the point when you really want to talk to a person about something and you realize he doesn't want to hear about it? Ever want support from someone and realize that he's got faaaaaaar more important things on his mind than hearing about YOUR life and what's going on with YOU? That point where you suddenly wake up and see something you later feel like you should have known for years?

I have some stress about the whole interview/job-offer situation, and I am realizing that one person I really thought I could talk to about it is in this category. There is absolutely no way he wants to hear about this right now. It's the last thing he'd care about. Oh, he might be polite and hear me out before changing the subject -- or he might not. But he wouldn't ask questions or offer advice or basically care.

This is the second realization in, oh, a few months. I clued in about another long-time friend a while back. This one is situational, temporary; the previous one is less striking but chronic.

They hurt, in the moment; I'm stung, and I feel angry. But then I start to wonder about all sorts of related things. Can anything give me the "right" to a particular person's friendship or support? Am I simply expecting too much? If not, am I a bad judge of people? Do I do for others the things I wished others would do for me? Am I seeing things that aren't there, and would these folks happily be supportive?

I honestly don't know. Maybe I'm going insane. But maybe it's the other way round: could be I was delusional before and now I'm more aware. I can't tell.
Friday, June 16th, 2006 05:18 pm (UTC)
Nope, you don't have a right to any particular person's friendship, but you get to decide what the price of yours is.

Absolutely true. I can be disappointed that the balance is off, but if I stick with it knowing what the deal is, I really can't go blaming anyone but me for accepting the deal.

"I'd like a cheese pizza for free, please." On one level, it's just an offer, to which the answer is "No". On another level, it's just _odd_, and makes you reexamine your assumptions and wonder if _you're_ the one who's wrong.

Yes! :-) That's it exactly! I'm looking at my own mind and saying "am I the one who's nuts?"

All that said, if you value the relationship, it might be a good idea to let the person know that they are "in arrears," as it were.

Right. I'm... bad at that, except with people I'm very close to. People I'm close to will know the score, if not immediately, then when we have a chance to talk; people I'm not close to can probably be fairly confused about the state of the CJ, and that's not something I'm proud of.

sometimes it's hard to see the obvious when it's one's own life

Amen brother!