People . . .

I don't understand people most of the time and I truly don't understand some people any of the time!  Makes doing a job in customer service more difficult once in a while but usually the confusion about people isn't about customers or people who are only marginally known - it's more common that the confusion concerns those known longer or (seemingly) better.

It begs the question - how well do we know those whom we consider "close" or, at the very least, friends?  And, once those bonds are broken, for whatever reason, the damage can be quite extensive for some people, particularly those who truly believed that they did "know" the person.  Luckily, unless the other person involved is part of my family, I tend not to be as emotionally involved.  That doesn't lessen feelings of disappointment and incredulity when something happens but it does tend to greatly lessen  feelings of betrayal, loss and pain.

I understand when others are affected by the results of another's actions but I don't have a great deal of sympathy (or empathy) for those who caused this collateral pain by their actions.  I have always enjoyed psychology . . studying it and reading about it . . but, while why someone does something is interesting, there has to be REALLY extenuating circumstances before I'm pulled in emotionally.  I'm much more likely to say "what were you thinking?" or "were you actually thinking?" or "was your head with you ALL day?" than I am to say "you must have been really confused" or whatever.  (Probably the reason I never went into counseling huh??!!)

Once a situation has been resolved, I don't lose sleep, stop eating (that might be a plus . . . humm . . . ) or really think about the actions or the person commiting them.  It's done, move on.  But I do ponder the abstract WHY behind the actions - but not too long!