I recently ran into a problem with one girl who unfriended me from Facebook and started spreading malicious reports about me because I had not joined her in her hate crusade against one fellow she had become emotionally entangled with. I served an ear and warm shoulder to rest on, but when the fellow came by and was angry, I proclaimed I was not taking sides but was just offering a compassionate ear. Because I chose not to take her side she assumed it was war. “Us against them”. But I found it interesting how, during her justifications for her actions, she blamed him as being manipulative. While my experience to date has not shown me any of the sort. And it reminded me of that saying that a thief will always blame you of stealing from him. Or a liar of lying. And it occurred to me that she went on this war campaign because she imagined that he must be doing the same. I never felt this from him, but her paranoias were fears that drove her in a certain direction. She became consumed with the need to get everyone “on her side”. I don’t know the gory details and, frankly, I really don’t want to. But this could serve as a lesson to us all. As soon as you judge someone, ask yourself, might not the character you spray over them be a slight reflection of yourself?