Lament

Sometimes, I get exasperated. Well, to start with, I rarely get exasperated, by the sheer fact that I am usually on top of matters by virtue of maintaining objectivity. The rare few who can ever get me exasperated are really rare.

Anyway, RX is starting to make me feel exasperated. He starts off innocently enough, but is prone to lapse into a destructive mentality that consumes his entire willpower to live, the energy to proceed with work, and perhaps his interest in what he is doing. And the sad thing about it all lies in the fact that he has a misguided view on how to handle people, particularly those of the opposite sex.

Misguided? That's right, misguided. I've only scratched the surface of his convoluted history, but from the little that I managed to glean, it appears that the problem started from several very unpleasant encounters in the past. The sad thing about it all is that he seems to be stuck in a time warp, where all he seems to care about are his past failings. I've tried telling him that all of us make mistakes, the trick is how to let it be, learn from it, and carry on with life. Apparently, he heard me, but I don't think that he has taken my words to heart.

His life is pretty much in a mess, and even with my analytical abilities, I don't think that I'm competent enough to fully appreciate the extent of his psyche. He usually projects this persona to most of us, but when he is alone, he seems to lapse into a most fatalistic persona that seems to suggest some form of neglect or even a maldevelopment of his psychology. This is seriously worrying me, but I have to acknowledge that this is now beyond my control.

Wait... I guess that it was never within my control to start with, considering the fact that I don not really know him that well, and that all that I ever know about him is what he chooses to tell me.

RX, if you are reading this, and have read thus far, read on.

I don't know how RX views females in general. From my vantage point, his reactions towards females seem to suggest that he may not know how to really conduct himself in a way that appears to be friendly but not suggestive. Either he over does the friendly bit, or he ends up being "smitten" by the girl and starts to "court" the girl. This is worrying. I mean, during the normal discourse of people, talking to both males and females are normal, but it is hardly correct to harbour a 见一个爱一个 mentality towards females. I mean, yes, companionship and/or long term relationship with a compatible female is always a useful goal to achieve, but most of the time the courtship process is not as simple as it seems. We all know that males and females evaluate priorities differently, and different people have different agenda. Moreover, the courthip process is complicated by the fact that it involves a lot of intangibles, things that cannot be easily quantified, things that include piousness, happiness and even comfort level. Going too deep too fast often leaves one scarred, both mentally and physically.

Based on my observation, I have thus concluded that I am neither competent nor qualified to carry out any form of remedial therapy. Herein contains my exasperation. I want to help, but I do not get enough truthful information to provide the help. I want to help, but I do not have the experience to deal with such a complicated psychology. The only hope that I harbour now will be that RX will one day "grow up" and realise that the real world is a much different place from the one that he thought he knew.

Some things in life cannot be taught, simply because the pupil refuses to pay heed of the sage's advice.