Friday, November 2, 2012

The Art of Empathy

A long time ago, in my Single Decades, I reached out to some friends to try and vent a little about my lack of luck in Love and the frustrations of the dating scene I was experiencing. 

I recall one person eventually wrote back and said something like "sorry, I've been so removed from the dating scene for so many years that I cannot relate."

I was floored and didn't know what to say.  I felt bad for bothering that friend and that response has stayed with me all these years.  I think I honestly stopped emailing her with any life updates though I did continue to read her yearly newsletter about how the kids were in 864 different soccer games and they went on a family vacation somewhere.

Now I realize that it was really a douchey copout.  By that logic, if someone had a terrible accident and lost their legs does that mean you cannot empathize because you can still walk?    How hard is it to say "I feel your pain," or "from what I remember, dating sucks more often than not." 

Which brings me to today's rant.  My wife and I are looking for houses and not finding anything in our price range that we like.  What is really frustrating is that I don't have anyone to vent to about this.  My two closest go-to friends are not remotely in a position to buy a house right now so conversations about what we are going through are short and subjects changed faster than an ADD monkey on crack flings his poop.

The annoying thing is I've seen this movie before.  When they get to this station on the Experience Train of Life, they are gonna bombard me with questions and appeals for advice.  Hopefully I'm too busy unpacking in our new home to answer them.

1 comment:

  1. Hopefully by the time I'm ready to buy a home, you'll be long unpacked and settled in your forever home! ;-)

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