Worst advice giver

Why do these things happen to me?

Going home, a drunk man, dripping wet from the rain, flagged the FX I was in.  When he got comfy, he asked me for the time.  I told him.  After a while, he started narrating to no one in particular how bad he was in business, he lost some money obviously, and then he singled me out and said, I looked like someone who finished college, what advice could I give him? 

(Why me? Why not the guy sitting next to me?  The one wearing a doctor's uniform?) 

He then started recounting this high school episode where he was scolded by his teacher who told him... erm, what did he tell him?  Anyway, the effect was disparaging.  He said he has become afraid of his shadows -- his personal ghosts.  You know the kind -- fear of failure, fear of the future.  He kept on repeating these ideas.  Seems like he's stunted by the high school experience which happened 13 years ago.  His story was going nowhere, he was circumlocutory, must be the effect of alcohol or maybe he's borderline schitz, nonetheless his judgment was still intact (he asked the guy sitting next to me to change seat because rain water was entering the vehicle and the guy was getting wet).

Anyway, my part in the story is deathly pathetic.  I need not feign interest because I was curious to begin with (me, being a student of human behavior and all), I asked the customary shrink-y leading questions while giving the Freudian affirmative nod and Jungian encouragement.  (I wonder if the commuters were secretly laughing at me for talking to the guy, or worse, annoyed). 

In the end, when he asked for an advice I could give him, I replied, "Face your shadows.  Stop thinking of what your teacher told you. Do not dwell on it.  Move on.  Do your work the best way you can."

Argh!  The horror!  I'm echoing an after-school TV special from the '60s.  Good thing I was near my drop off point, hate to skewer the guy's head any further.  Hope he didn't entertain searching for a noose once he got home.

Comments

[Nhad]

that's what you get for looking like a person who gives a shit...hehehe. mukha ka kasing mabait and symphathetic kaya ka cguro kinausap. Sna naman siningil mo siya for your shrinking duties..mahal na per session ngayon.

[I'M NOT Arthur]

You're a much better person than I am, apparently.