Morpheus —“ Peoples opinion of me is none of my business.”
Coco: "Never explain yourself, your friends dont need it & your enemies will never believe it!"
Perhaps Paul is confounded by a thing that puzzles all of us from time to time: The moment when we discover that a person we felt was in our “friend camp” is not. In fact we are shocked to learn they are hostiles. Enemies.
Friends are those to whom we talk freely. From whom receive free comment, occasional questions, often support—at the very least —respect.
When a person of my acquaintance—one whose goodwill l had no reason to doubt— shows a readiness to harm me, l readjust. But I do not castigate myself for having thought them a friend.
Afterward l will maintain a buffer in my mind from this person who thinks badly of me. I do not try to engage them —even reasonably because there is a saying that is very true:
“Ill will never spoke well.”
There is a lot of good advice here.
I do think for JW’s it can be difficult figuring out authentic interactions since WTBTS programming discouraged emotional honesty.