Synaptic Snaps, Crackles & Pops

I know you're there [Journalistic Intentions, Rd. 7]

Prompt: "Most of all, you feel unseen and unheard. The other person is demonstrating that there are two things more important than your pain:
Their desire to avoid negative emotions
Their need to offer unsolicited advice."

I hope no one here feels unseen and/or unheard specifically because of me. While I'll admit I'm pretty nonconfrontational and, as a rule, try to avoid negative emotions, I've engaged with some of our fellow writers, as well as a couple of RW acquaintances. This "engagement" usually consists of me lending a sympathetic ear / monitor / IM window. I've carried on 20-30 minute conversations during which I said little, mainly providing that ear. Sometimes, the person just needs to vent and, as one seldom 'vents' about good experiences, there's a fair amount of negativity involved. That's part of the conversational bargain, as far as I'm concerned; I won't cut someone off or change the subject just to avoid it.

Also, for a man of my 'advanced years', I'm remarkably inexperienced in the dispensing of advice. When I was in the Army, any advice I generally gave could have been given by almost anyone in a similar supervisory position: which leadership school(s) should I attend, what assignments should I seek, etc. Nowadays, I am seldom asked my opinion as regards one course of action versus another (or about anything else, for that matter), so I'm cautious about what I say. After all, “Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.”1

Footnotes
1  Gandalf to Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien