Two situations that have cropped up over the last couple of days have left me totally flummoxed:
1. A friend swore up and down the line that she was breaking off her relationship with close relatives. They had hurt her very badly and she did not want to have anything more to do with them. So you sympathize and hurt along with your friend, for you cannot tolerate anything hurtful happening to her. And then there's a volte-face and everything is hunky dory. All hurts forgotten and everything is back to as it was, and you are left having damned those people, who you don't even know, to hell...
Does this mean that we should take all we hear with a bag of salt. Sympathize with the lips but keep your heart away?
and
2. The father of two children you have taught has been accused of corruption charges. Other children whose fathers work in the same company have also been your students, and like all children, a relationship develops over the years. Children are children. The person concerned has always been cordial with you, on the few occasions you have met. You don't really know what happened, but you do know that corruption is a major State offense. One child asks you to write some lines on a website where support for this person is being expressed. What do you do?
As a teacher, I've always taught my kids that one should not do wrong things. And that if you do, the consequences are likely to be severe, and you have to face them. Here I find myself in a situation between children I love and a person who has never been anything but affable to me, but who is now in custody on a major charge. Everyone is suffering - kids, the person concerned, other employees and all those whose lives have been, in some way or the other, been touched by this person. What words to use, for which child will accept that her Dad has done something wrong? And, how to show support, based on your personal interaction, for a person who has been charged by the State?