My roommate likes to interfere. He thinks he's helping, which is cute, but he's really just interfering. This bugs the hell out of me, mostly because I see myself in his behaviour, especially when I think about how I treated all my ex-boyfriends. I basically henpecked them to death.

So I want to avoid being like him. I would like to just leave people alone, and just assume that they're doing everything right, but that's not always the case. Sometimes someone actually needs my help. So I'm thinking about what the difference between helping someone and interfering is, and I've come up with a little Hallmark-style saying that will tell me the difference: Helping is showing someone the path; interfering is walking behind them every step of the way, telling them when to take each step, and picking them up and pushing them from behind when they decide to stop walking.

Yeah, there are some people who need interference. My roommate is one of them. I am not. Nor do I want to have much to do with people who crave interference. Anyone who needs that can see a doctor, a psychologist, or a guidence counselor. For my part, I will happily show them the way to a phone book, so they can find these people themselves.