Doctor. Still, I will listen to you. No, you don’t need to take off your coat; I have very sensitive ears. (Takes a stethoscope from the table in the pavilion.) So. Take a breath. Take a deep breath. Take a deep breath. Again. Breathe a sigh of relief. Again. Look at everything through your fingers. Give up on everything. Once again. Shrug your shoulders. So. (Sits down and thinks.) ...Annuanziata. Well, what do you say, doctor? How is he doing? Doctor. Badly. Annuanziata. Well, you see, and he says that he is completely healthy. Doctor. Yes, he's healthy. But things are going badly for him. And they will get even worse until he learns to look at the world through his fingers, until he gives up on everything, until he masters the art of shrugging his shoulders.Annuanziata. What should I do, doctor? How to teach him all this? The doctor silently shrugs his shoulders. E. Schwartz “Shadow” I remembered this wonderful play by Schwartz, once again thinking about the relationships people have with each other and with themselves. Sometimes, listening to client stories, and indeed, observing life, it’s not that you are surprised - you are amazed at how difficult it is for people to understand each other (if they ever understand...). Indeed, if you don’t look at everything that happens through your fingers and, as the doctor from Shvartsev’s fairy tale recommends, if you don’t master the art of shrugging your shoulders, you can go crazy from despondency. We are all blind. We get in the way and confuse everything. We confuse condescension with arrogance, kindness with cowardice, generosity with weakness. We confuse intelligence with wisdom, arrogance with competence, common sense with insensitivity, indifference with nobility, cruelty with integrity, and integrity with stubbornness. We don’t see pride in self-flagellation, we take lust for love, a request for use, use and flattery for sincere interest, boasting for self-confidence, dedication for self-interest. We regard sincerity as stupidity, and we take posing and narcissism for authenticity. When a person, wanting to hide the pain, tries with all his might to hold on, we say: “ugh, how angry and arrogant he is!” when he is tired, we say: “he doesn’t know how to love,” and when he is gentle and complacent, we peer suspiciously: “this is not without reason, what is he up to?...”. And why, I wonder, did God create us so stupid??!!!