We all have friends like that. Friends who will be over dramatic or critical or rude or loud or sulky, and leave us with our suspicions they are just doing it for attention. So what do we do with them? A lot of people say the best response is to "just ignore them," as though we were talking about a child. But I wonder if we're missing something.
Yesterday I got lost on the way to a meeting. I get lost most days. I have no sense of direction. A man who was busy digging up the road asked me if I was lost and I told him I was looking for Church Street. His response was to tell me how to get to Church Street. This was a rational response. An irrational response would have been to say “well you’re only looking lost because you’re trying to find Church Street, so I’m going to make sure you don’t find it.”
Yesterday I got lost on the way to a meeting. I get lost most days. I have no sense of direction. A man who was busy digging up the road asked me if I was lost and I told him I was looking for Church Street. His response was to tell me how to get to Church Street. This was a rational response. An irrational response would have been to say “well you’re only looking lost because you’re trying to find Church Street, so I’m going to make sure you don’t find it.”