Kindness in Conversation

Thank you as always for a very kind and thoughtful comment, Ethan. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the perils of communication/miscommunication, how we can inadvertently wound someone with a word or phrase or joke that seems harmless to us, but painfully connects with something in their experience.

I have a Liverpudlian friend who has absolutely no filters. Cringe city at times. They hide behind the "Oh, I just tell it like it is" patter. And here's the rub - they can't take any crap themselves. Always the way. Like the "cinema" reference, as some ruffian once wrote, the world is definitely a stage.

I think that most of the world's (human) problems come from poor self-image, which might be where we get the phrase "he can dish it out, but he can't take it." Thank you for your comment, Rob.

there’s a bomb scare in everyone’s head, and the place is sealed off

I think if I were you, I'd make that comment a poem since it's as effective as one. Maybe like so:

there’s a bomb
scare in everyone’s head,
and the place is sealed off