The Nice Person's Dilemma

A friend of mine and I recently discussed what kind of baggage comes along with being a nice person. Why is that? Why must we carry that baggage? Is it because we actually listen to people? Give good advice? Actually seem to care? Those probably all play roles, but why is that we seem to have a magnetic force, affecting all those around us who have major issues or problems? Their eyes spot ours and immediately know they can come talk to us. There's never that person we're attracted to on every level who immediately spots us and walks over to engage in conversation. No. It's those people who need a counselor, a psychologist, a best friend. So, there we are, listening, nodding, giving them eye contact, telling them what we think about their problem(s), and through this, they may get the wrong impression and think we're interested, when we're only being nice. To them, we're perfect. That's just fantastic, isn't it? We're perfect to people with more baggage than Michael Jackson. That makes me feel special, to say the least.

You know that old saying, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all?"

Well, I have a new saying that might help us nice people out. "If a time calls for you to say something too nice, don't say anything at all." I think that might help out some. Being nice is fine, but being too nice might be what gets us into trouble.