>>>>To all fellow UT members,
>>>>
>>>>If I ever offend you in any way or cause some other bad feelings, I would like to apologize. I never intentionally wanted to hurt anyone.
>>>>
>>>>Thank you in advance for your apology.
>>>
>>>Aw, you could never offend me. But that's just me. Hundreds of people have tried, and it just doesn't work!<g> One thought though, you might want to wait until you offend someone so you can apologize then. Another thought is that some people will take offense at you because of anything. Don't worry about what they think or so, so long as you have done the right thing. If they can't accept a difference of opinion - it's on them!
>>
>>It's hard to stop worrying and stop mentally torturing myself when I know that someone who I always liked hates me. I'm running towards the stone wall head forward and keep beating against it till it bleeds.
>
>I understand that it causes you pain, but you can only control yourself. If you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to apologize for. If you did do something, then you should apologize to that person and try to move the relationship forward. Many times these things turn out to be communications problems. Trust me, I've had my share of those situations where someone thought I meant x and I really meant y. Try to explain your position and try to understand theirs. If it cannot be worked out, chalk it up to experience and move on.
>
>YOU HAVE NO CONTROL OVER OTHERS, but you do have, or should have, control of your own actions. Happiness depends on what happens, but you can choose to be happy by not allowing negative things to impact you. I know this is easy to say and hard to implement, but it does work. Focus on positives, not negatives.


Excellent advice, sir.

I got a similar message yesterday while working on an online defensive driving class. I got nailed running a stop sign and Illinois now lets you take the course online instead of going to a classroom. If you complete the course the traffic violation does not go on your record and does not affect your insurance premium. Anyway, one of the things the course stresses is that you can only control your own emotions and vehicle, not what other drivers do. That wasn't a revelation but it was good to be reminded. There is other good information in the course as well. I thought this was going to be a minor PITA and it's actually time well spent.

PS -- When you said sometimes say X and people hear Y, does that mean you're actually a Democrat? <g>