I've been working on being more kind and compassionate (this place is one of the first places where my behavior changes about this really coalesced). @fidgety's recent thread about Mr. Rogers has inspired me more. If I could be 1/10th of what that guy seems to've been with the consistency he seems to've been it, I would consider that a wild success.
@benhamill I try my very best to be kind and compassionate as much as I can. It's sometimes rough; sometimes, I'm terrible at it. It's hard to do on days when my depression gets the better of me.
But I like to remind myself to be "the person who I needed when I was younger," and it really helps.
@fidgety I have come to realize that I have a lot of Sarcasm Armor. And that, as a straight man, it can be almost revolutionary to just, like, have a feeling and tell someone about it. Tell someone they did great instead of giving them a fake put-down that they're meant to interpret as a compliment. Like, even when that doesn't hit the misinterpretation failure mode, I don't really like it. Or I don't like it being the ONLY tool or the most common tool. Or whatever.
@benhamill As a sarcasmo herself, yeah, I get this.