A Friend in West Virginia, Part Two
This is the second of a series of short articles I am writing about a troubled friend.
Anyone who knows me will know I like to help folks talk through their troubles, and my time in property management gave me many an opportunity to do so.* I believe my friend wants to do the right things, and in the first few months of our communication, he showed concern for others, but his emotional/mental condition, his "demons," are tough for him to overcome. When his imagination gets the best of him and he lashes out at people, he finds it EXTREMELY difficult, if not impossible, to say, "I'm sorry." He's highly temperamental, sometimes over the silliest things. It's tough to help a person talk through their problems, when they can't bring themselves to admit they did anything wrong. Not only that, he accuses others of suffering from what are HIS emotional problems. More on this later. From what I have experienced, his attacks on people are purely verbal, not physical; and I hope that is truly the case, because he is a big guy, but with his instability, I cannot say that with one hundred percent confidence, as with any of us, when we lose our tempers, we might well do things far beyond our typical behavior.
* For my dealings with troubled veterans, this link is to an article I did on that subject: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2012/05/my-veterans.html
And on other troubled tenants: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2014/03/tolerance-on-mental-issues-often-easier.html
WORD HISTORY:
Stable-This word, distantly related by way of Indo European to English "stand" and "stall," goes back to Indo European "sta," which had the notion of "stand, set in place." This gave its Latin offspring "stabulum," meaning "place for animals, a stall," but also, "hut, dwelling or public establishment." ^ This gave Old French, a Latin-based language, "estable," also meaning "(animal) stall." English borrowed the word circa 1200.
^ The noun "establishment" and the verb "establish," are close relatives of "stable," and both are also of Latin derivation.
Anyone who knows me will know I like to help folks talk through their troubles, and my time in property management gave me many an opportunity to do so.* I believe my friend wants to do the right things, and in the first few months of our communication, he showed concern for others, but his emotional/mental condition, his "demons," are tough for him to overcome. When his imagination gets the best of him and he lashes out at people, he finds it EXTREMELY difficult, if not impossible, to say, "I'm sorry." He's highly temperamental, sometimes over the silliest things. It's tough to help a person talk through their problems, when they can't bring themselves to admit they did anything wrong. Not only that, he accuses others of suffering from what are HIS emotional problems. More on this later. From what I have experienced, his attacks on people are purely verbal, not physical; and I hope that is truly the case, because he is a big guy, but with his instability, I cannot say that with one hundred percent confidence, as with any of us, when we lose our tempers, we might well do things far beyond our typical behavior.
* For my dealings with troubled veterans, this link is to an article I did on that subject: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2012/05/my-veterans.html
And on other troubled tenants: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2014/03/tolerance-on-mental-issues-often-easier.html
WORD HISTORY:
Stable-This word, distantly related by way of Indo European to English "stand" and "stall," goes back to Indo European "sta," which had the notion of "stand, set in place." This gave its Latin offspring "stabulum," meaning "place for animals, a stall," but also, "hut, dwelling or public establishment." ^ This gave Old French, a Latin-based language, "estable," also meaning "(animal) stall." English borrowed the word circa 1200.
^ The noun "establishment" and the verb "establish," are close relatives of "stable," and both are also of Latin derivation.
Labels: English, etymology, fear, French, friendship, irrationality, Latin, mental illness, paranoia
posted by Randy at 7:41 AM
1 Comments:
he should b able to see what a friend u r. keep at him maybe it will sink in.
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