The following may or may not be helpful if you know someone who’s struggling to stay positive or to stay on an even keel emotionally. I’m totally stealing it as a tactic, because the Midwestern Change-The-Subject Discomfort doesn’t really offer viable options for talking to someone about problems they may have, where Southern In-Your-Face Comfort does.

Not that we’re talking anything about anything specific here, just taking note of a useful tactic.

I don’t want to embarrass anyone, so I’m not going into specifics, but I also want to write about this, because I’m totally stealing it as a tactic. So, I’m out with friends, one of whom has been noticeably down and not in the “I’m going to write poetry and listen to the Cure” way but in the “One more thing and I’m going to start beating people with the people I beat just before them” way.

So, my Southern friend says “blah blah blah, we’ve noticed things aren’t okay and we’re concerned about you.”

And the other friend says, “No, I’m fine, really.”

Now, if we were all Midwestern, the Silence of You’re Totally Bullshitting Us would have descended. If you’re from the Midwest or related to Midwesterners, you’ve experienced this and you know the level of how much we think you’re bullshitting us is indicated by how long the Silence of You’re Totally Bullshitting Us goes on. Then, we all talk about you behind your back until word gets back to you and you realize we have concerns.

via Tiny Cat Pants