I can't solve your problems any more than you can solve mine. I don't even know what your problems are, although since I don't have the solution that probably doesn't matter. You know some of my problems, but not all of them. You don't know which ones can be solved and which ones must merely be endured. I'm not sure I know, either.

We can certainly be sympathetic to each other's problems. We can try to understand, to the degree that understanding is possible. We can care that these problems exist, and recognize that they cause pain. Even if we can't solve them, we can try to mitigate that pain by the mere acknowledgment of it.

A little support goes a long way. There's no way to know what mountains you could climb if there were someone who believed you could do it, and who let you know they believed in you. Maybe that next step is the one that will put you at the top, and get you where you need to be. And maybe all you need to take that last step is for me to say, "I know you can."

And vice versa, of course.

If we can accept each other, with all our needs and weaknesses and faults, we can draw on each other's wisdom and courage and strength. Sometimes what is perceived as weakness is really a source of strength, so it's probably best not to judge each other by what we think we know. We judge ourselves harshly enough, mostly because we have a notion of what's going on in our own minds.

But I don't know what makes you tick, and you don't know where I'm coming from. Let's just be there for each other and take each other at face value, to whatever degree that's possible.

Actions, though. We can certainly make judgments on someone else's actions, especially when they affect the innocent and the defenseless. The weak are blindsided daily by the powerful, and it's wrong for someone who sees it happening to stand by quietly. That's the very basis for law and justice and politics, all good things when applied fairly. Unfair actions require counteractions (or at least a dose of biting political commentary).