If You Don't Want Advice, Don't Ask for it!

I remember a story that my dear mother told me regarding an incident that she had with one of her "friends".  This friend's name was "Pat", and just to set the story right, I'm going to briefly describe "Pat" to anybody who cares to read this post.  Pat went to our church and used Mass on Sunday as her weekly fashion show.  For some reason, my parents asked her to be my sister's Godmother.  Now I will say, Pat and her mother were very good to my sister and always brought her little presents.  However, Pat gossiped terribly about everybody, including my mother.  She criticized my mother's homemaking skills, saying that we "had such a lovely home, and that it was such a shame that Nora (my mother) didn't keep it nice and neat".  This was really something coming from Pat, who had no children and lived with her mother in an apartment!  I could go into a lot more detail about things that Pat did to my mother, but this post really isn't about that.

Anyway, Mom called me up one day and told me that Pat had recently come and asked for her advice.  Mom gave the matter some serious thought and then gave Pat her honest, but diplomatic advice.  Pat then proceeded to get really upset and left in a huff.  She then proceeded to tell the whole town, church, Tobyhanna Army Depot, and anybody else who would listen that Mom "was mean to her".  After telling me about this "incident", my mother advised me "to be very careful about giving advice to people, because they usually just want you to tell them something that they want to hear instead of the truth".

Well, it turned out that Mom gave me some very solid advice!  Not too long ago, I met a Facebook "friend" through one of my other friends.  This "friend" is quite young and extremely troubled.  He messaged me yesterday and asked for my advice regarding something that he wanted to do that was very dangerous and could get him either into terrible trouble or dead.  I talked to him for a while, providing honest but caring advice about how this was not the right path to take and that it was likely that his current situation didn't warrant him to go this way.  Well, true to Mom's prediction, he got really nasty to me because this is not what he wanted to hear.  He wanted for me to approve of his taking the proverbial  "Highway to Hell"!  He then said that he "was done with me" and proceeded to unfriend and block me on Facebook.  Yes siree, no good deed goes unpunished!

Now, this is what I have to say about this incident and to anybody who ever wants to ask me for advice:

If you don't want my advice, don't ask for it!

I am very honest and will not lie to my friends and tell them what they want to hear!  Anybody who is a true friend will give their friends the best, honest advice possible, especially when they are headed for trouble!

So, to my dear "ex" FB friend:  Honey, you are about to merge onto the "Highway to Hell"!  Please take the next exit before you ruin your life or get killed before you even have one!  And to top off this "advice" that you obviously don't want to hear, here's a little AC/DC to put some music to the story:

Oh, and by the way, I still care about you, even though you were really nasty to me for being honest.  I will pray that you'll eventually get some sense, get on the right track and find happiness!

In closing, I would like to say "Rest in Peace" to both my dear mother Nora West and her friend Pat.