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I'm becoming more and more convinced that Ambrose Bierce was accurate in his definition of advice. He referred to it as, "the smallest current coin." What that basically means is that it's worthless. The penny has more value than advice.

Over the last few weeks, between my girlfriend and my best friend, I think I have shared my opinion about possible decisions, goals, and ambitions over 200 times. Now, the difference here is that in a relationship your significant other will stop for a second, think about it, and listen (because that's what makes relationships so great) and sometimes they'll even utter the words, "no, you're right." Friends, on the other hand, really don't like to do that. No matter what the sex, friendship advice is worth even less than Bierce's general definition of advice.

When someone doles out some advice, they do it for two reasons: 1) a self-righteous sense of "knowing better" or 2) a "been-there-done-that" type of scenario where one person knows what the other is going through from personal experience.

I'm of the mind that people should listen to their gut about 5%, their family 15%, their friends 30%, and common sense for the rest. The friends beat out the family because, let's face it, you hit a certain age and you realize your parents know jack and shit. Your friends are the people who are always there for you. They've known you for a long time, they've held your hand through ever rough patch and they are always, ALWAYS, in the business of looking out for you just as they expect you to do the same.

I guess what I'm trying to say... is that I give up. I know this sounds like something I've said before... I have... I just sincerely give up on giving real advice to my friends... They'll do what they want to, marry who they feel like, move to Hell and Damned, and not look back... I'll never be able to preemptively save them from a mistake or stop them from doing something stupid. For some people... doing something stupid is what they live for. The adventure of it all...

I'm not bitter and this post is not in anger or frustration... I'm just a little disappointed. The principle of the whole dynamic gets lost somewhere. Hm.