Living with groundlessness

[AntoniaB]

So I told him what I was doing in my own work approach that made me more peaceful or accepting of stuff out of my control (we both work in education), and basically he decided to turn on me and spew.

First, he sent an email calling me "arrogant", "condescending", and "mystical" and attacked me for being a professor and "not understanding" that he "does God's work" and I don't because they don't fail kids out and I guess that he thinks I personally can get kids kicked out of college. (I fail kids and sometimes get them back and our students are marginally illiterate, but I didn't point this out to him; I ignored him).

Then I got a second angry email about how he thinks I'm assuming that he's got a terrible LIFE and that he isn't happy when he is, and that he just made an innocent offhand "hate my job" comment that I turned into a statement that encompassed his whole life, and that I subconsciously want him to be miserable and fail, and that he has a "really bright future" ahead of him and he's not being malicious but if he wants my advice, he'll ask for it.

So I very patiently replied without getting angry that I had been receiving emails from him at since August concerning his job, and that if he didn't want me to assume he was having difficulty at work, he should stop sending me complaints. I said I never made any reference anywhere to anything BUT his job, and that if I wanted him to fail or be miserable, then why would I be telling him the way that I got over my angst about the educational "system" to become a happier person in a very tough job?

AND.....I think we're back to no contact now :-)