Do you remember the movie, "Count of Monte Cristo", where the main character, Edmond, is falsely imprisoned by his jealous friend, Fernand? Edmond later escapes, find treasure and proceeds to exact revenge on those he felt betrayed him. In this movie, the betrayer, Fernand, appears to be very wealthy and pretty much has all a young man could ask for, whereas, Edmond is closer to "poor" in terms of wealth. At one point in the movie, Edmond questions why his friend hated him so much and his friend's reply was "because you're the son of a clerk, and I am not supposed to want to be you." Profound...huh?
There are times in our lives when we encounter folks who, from the outside, seem to have it all but for whatever reason, they remain focused on you. It doesn't matter if you're struggling and just getting by, if you show one iota of happiness, they're there, ready to pounce on your joy. Most times, these "pouncers" come in the form of a so-called "friend", much like Sir Fernand in the Count movie.
The "Edmonds" in these scenarios are often well-intended, loyal, even slightly naive to it all...they make excuses like, "Oh, that's just him, he doesn't mean any harm." or we dismiss it all together because, naively, we expect folks to act and be the same way we are. Most times the attack is very mild....a rumor here, a lie there.... but trust and believe, if given the opportunity to crush you, it would be taken without hesitation. Some of us are lucky and wake up to the maliciousness before the individual ruins a part of our lives; others go through hell before realizing "Friend" is worse than ANY of our worst enemies.
I'm writing this post as a warning...yeah, sounds ominous but not taking heed to the damage a fake friend, aka "pouncer", can cause in your life, not to mention your self esteem, can have MAJOR consequences! I know for a fact I've been lied on, gossiped about and I can't lie that sometimes I wonder what is floating around the listening person's head due to these lies. But I can't let it stay on me; I can't make myself responsible for finding and filtering out lies others have chosen to accept about me. I have, however, grown to a point where a rule of life is to always depend on ME to determine the credibility of another person, purely based on my own personal experience with them. Yeah, I'll listen and keep information in the back of my head like scribbled notes on a notebook but I won't let someone else's stories, lies, opinions make that determination for me.
Anyway....all of that to say this, please be careful who you call friend; who you share your intimate details or life events with. Be mindful of that one person who's always around when you're feeling low but can never be found when you're on a high. Watch the ones who can never give a compliment without adding a criticism. Just be careful y'all, because sometimes our enemies wear the faces of our dearest friends.
Peace and Love!
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