Do You Love Me!?

You know, the funny thing is that the only people whose opinions matter in my life are my husband, my favorite aunt, a couple of friends, my son....the list is pretty damned small.  Yet, peoples' opinions still have the power to make me angry or upset, even though in the end what they think doesn't make any real difference.
I met somebody the other day who I really wanted to like.  I didn't have the chance to really get to know her, though, as we were only at one function together with a number of other people.  She managed to say a handful of things that taken by themselves were certainly offensive, or at the very least, a sign of poor manners.  I wrote it off to her youth.  I have since found out that there were quite a few other things that I missed and that were said after I was gone that were equally unfortunate, if not more.
This is not somebody who is ever going to be any real part of my life as she lives very far away and leads a very different life from me, but our lives DO intersect in some significant ways and it would have been nice if she were less arrogant.
C'est la vie, I guess.
I was talking to an online friend earlier about how people's opinions affect us.  She is in a situation where she could really use the support of her loved ones.  Her loved ones, who do rally around her siblings and others when they need it, don't even acknowledge her, much less recognize that she needs them, to the point that she doesn't really believe that they love her.  Fortunately, she has immediate family who is truly wonderful and loving, and many friends who love the hell out of her, so she's not alone in the world.  It makes a difference, though, when the people who should love us don't behave as if they do.  And no matter how much we school ourselves to not have any expectations, their indifference, or worse, can really deal a blow.

Even if you don't get a chance to talk to somebody every day, or every week, every month, or even more than a few times a year, do make sure that you express how you feel to them.  You might never know how much your love means to somebody.  People don't often display their pain when they're in it, so you just never know when somebody is really hurting and that one little boost, that one moment of positive opinion, can change their entire day, or more.  So throw out a text, a FB message, an email, a snail mail letter, or a good old fashioned phone call, and let somebody random know that you care.