(no subject)

[randomness]

If you freak out when people tell you alarming things, they won't tell you them. --Paul Graham

Comments

[redbird]

I think a piece of that is the difference between "Oh dear, I hope that works out okay. Is there anything I can do to help?" and "Oh dear, the sky is falling! My great-aunt Bertha had that happen to her, and she was never the same afterwards" [followed by, if not stomped on, by a lengthy and detailed recitation of either Bertha's decline or what Bertha's illness did to the speaker's life, family, budget, or delicate sensibilities].

[holmes-iv.livejournal.com]

Or, as happened to me last time I was seriously ill, "Oh no! Do you think it could be cancer?!!"