Question

How do you receive sympathy?

This is a question that was posed to me recently. Is there a right or a wrong way? Why the question in the first place?

Life is already a maze to figure out. We do not always have the bird's eye view, but a question like that, makes it even much more puzzling. Much more into the question, why does one need to ask how to receive it? Is there a particular way to receive it?

The education I received gave me the other way of asking it. How to provide sympathy for people? The model of grief - what to say, or not to say to someone grieving.

In a situation where the outcome is not favorable to a person, sympathy comes naturally. It is also something that the person needs, yet to a considerable extent. There isn't any right or wrong rule to it. Probably, a matter of, does the sympathy-giver care? I think, if care and love is the motivation, this question, is probably redundant? The one giving sympathy should stand in the position of the one needing it? This would mean the person thinking for the other. Hence, why this question in the first place?