[amber]

Originally Posted by lagringader&r

I totally disagree. How hard is it to be nice to someone who might be somewhat mentally challenged for only a few hours at a time? If you don't click with somebody, it doesn't mean you have to not be nice. You can still be nice and even if you don't feel it, you're being *insincere* for a good reason. To spare somebody else's feelings. I can't relate coz I have a few not-so-bright friends (maybe I'm even one of them) and stupidity doesn't bother me. Someone being mean does. Bitches I can't hang with. Peeps who just aren't up with everybody else's IQs, I can hang with and don't have a problem with.

I totally agree with you, in theory. I think it's wonderful, and very rare and special, that you can hang out with your not so bright friends, and that "stupidity" doesn't bother you. Obviously, we all have our own scales of what kind of people we can and cannot hang out with. I would never be happier than if no one was ever bothered by hanging out with certain kinds of people, including that who we deem "not so bright" (which is at least *somewhat* subjective)
Although you are the special kind of person who does not mind hanging out with "mentally challenged" people for a few hours each week, this may not be everyone's skill. I think the best *most people* could do in this situation would to be, like you said, nice. However, if you feel you may gouge your own eyes out, or somehow blow up at the person if you spend any more time with them, at that point I think you should disengage from your obligation to be "nice" and remove yourself from the situation, because the aforementioned reactions are much worse than someone removing themselves.
That said, My admiration for people who can always be nice to everyone, knows no bounds.
And let us also fairly note, that, I have...perhaps...sometimes...maybe....the temper span of a badger that is fighting with a raccoon over a fresh found slab of meat....and...a pack of hyenas is sneaking up on them...and....they just heard the bark of a male lion...and...vultures are circling....okay, the Hyperbole Police are coming for me, but you see what I mean.