a friend told me a while back that i was 'seen as too nice'. i didn't get it at the time. how can you be 'too nice'? but something happened recently that brought it all home for me. being too nice, apparently, is walking around with a big 'use me - and not in the good way' sign tattooed on your back.

if you let people take advantage of you, some of them will. not all of them, thankfully, there are good, kind, generous, noble people out there who will not take advantage of you, but there are, sadly, way too many of the other kind, too.

i knew this, of course. you don't get to my age without learning that there are selfish, manipulative people out there. but somehow, despite the years and the experience, i still don't expect it in people i meet. i'm not sure that i want to become the sort of person who expects it, who trusts no-one and is suspicious of everyone, or worse, the kind who believes in taking advantage of others 'before they take advantage of you'.

i am, however, getting rather tired of being taken advantage of, and finally, after all these years, i think i've learned a basic lesson that i really should have learned a long time ago, which is that if they do it once, they'll do it again if you let them. so i've resolved on a 'one strike and you're out' policy.

fool me once, shame on you. fool me twice ... nah, i ain't stickin' around for that to happen any more.