A Lesson Learned

I learned a valuable lesson earlier today and I'd like to pass along the benefit of my experience. Simply put, never ever try and offer advice to anyone, friend or otherwise, when your opinion has not been asked for. Even if you have been asked, don't ever try and get your point across in an e-mail either. People have a way of misinterpeting your meaning and then they become very defensice. When someone is definsive it's your feelings that end up being hurt. Have you ever heard the old saying, "No good deed goes unpunished?" Let me tell you something: take this old saying as gospel. Whenever you try and help, it does not matter how pure your heart is or how unselfish your intention is; it is never ever taken that way. Whomever it is that you are trying to help, as soon as you say something that that person does not agree with, they take it like you are attacking them and their normal response is to strike back and try to hurt you. It is very understandable that when someone is hurt, they would try and retaliate. And it rarely matters how long you have known the person or again, what your intentions are. They never ever see it as your intention being pure. It is only taken by that person as a personal attack. And personal attacks hurt, even if you know that once they calm down and see things more clearly, they will probably apologize to you later. Note: I began this post back in June and although just about a month has passed, I find that my feelings on this matter have not changed, therefore it must be true. So now I will post this and hope that some of you can learn from the benefit of my experience.