TS, I do take responsibility and have tried to say how badly I feel if I came off condescending and how sorry I am that I let my frustration come out in my words. I truly am sorry and do see how my choice of words was...unfortunate? Before I saw this post I wrote another which started off with how badly I feel about that as I know that cat was only trying to help. Not sure what else I can say. I have found that in a world of texts and emails and short posts, many times the way a person reads say an email, myself included, can be totally opposite than what was intended by the writer. One of the reasons I try to not rely on this kind of correspondence in business or important situations.
I also am well aware that my state of mind at the time I read cat's post had an effect on her intended message and most certainly read into it things that she had no intention for me to. Everyone here is dealing with varying levels of stress and going through some of the most awful periods of their lives. We have seen our lives turned upside down by the very person we thought we could most count on, had friends and family who just want what's best for us disagree with the effort we are making to stand for our marriages while at the same time having to take spews of venom from the person we were just defending to them saying that they are in "pain' and in "crisis". None of which is an excuse but at the same time there will be times when we may react to a given post or situation in a way we may regret in retrospect.
Again, all I can say to you and cat and anyone else who may have found my post condescending is that it wasn't intended that way nor do I dismiss or disagree with any part of anything said and do appreciate that her intentions were nothing but good and trying to help a person who is trying to deal with a bad situation. It is sometimes hard to not react defensively when for so long I have had to be so careful to keep my words and emotions "in check" while having to listen to spews of venom while being told I am doing or thinking things or ways I never have and never would and NOT be defensive or disagree. None of this makes it OK but I hope can give you some idea of why I may have reacted in a way I now regret.
If you read the rest of that post after that first quote I hope you can see that I did take responsibility but maybe needed to be more specific. No where in the post do I say I'm NOT responsible, to the contrary, I had hoped that I made it clear I do see how someone could take what I said this way.
I know your intentions in your post but I could also read it another way...are you saying you are 'smarter" or more educated than I am when you talk about the writing courses you took in college? I don't believe that was your intention, don't get me wrong but do you see what I mean by the "tone" being provided by the reader? I could easily find you telling me I DON'T think I'm responsible for how my words were taken because of just the first line of my post as "condescending" when I go on to say that I was sorry and it was not my intention to come off that way. Again, I don't believe this was your intention by any means but it illustrates my point.
In the end, all I can say is it wasn't my intention to be insulting nor condescending. If you choose to think my apology insincere there isn't anything I can do or say that can change that. In the future I will try to choose my words more carefully.
