A Spark by Innocent Mwatsikesimbe from The Vision, chapter 44

Advice and the person handing it over are two separate things, and the value sits in the advice. Weigh the teller instead and you end up scoring their standing, how close they are, whether you like them — never the words themselves.

The cost of that mistake is quiet. Underestimate what someone might be able to do for your problem and you can “end up pushing away the people with good intentions, and embracing the betrayers and destroyers instead.”

Whom to confide in is still your call. Personal problems are hard to discuss, and the fear of being a laughingstock keeps plenty of them unsaid. But once someone has spoken, the only question left is what the words are worth. A person telling you a hard truth just to let you know of it, not to demean or mislead you, means well — and however badly it lands, “Truth is truth.”