On character.

The other day I was playing music with a friend who was stressed out.
I could tell he was stressed - he performed poorly, and he wasn't pleasant to be around.  

The following day I asked him what stressed him out. He told me that the gig circumstance was not ideal; that the flooring in his house wouldn't get finished due to COVID; and some other personal issues. Though his situation was far from stress-less, he never intended to come across as a jerk.  

Today I realized an important fact - he can only know our intentions and our feelings.

We can translate what we know into action, but we can't actually see what we do.
More than that, we can't control how our behaviors will be perceived.
Nor can we control how others will attach their perception of our actions to our character.  

How we perceive a situation determines how we feel, our intentions, and our actions.  

How others perceive our actions will have nothing to do with our situation. It will have everything to do with how they see our character.

Ever try to show others you're fine when you're not using your facial expressions?

Ever notice that people somehow know you're not by reading your face?

That is the point - we can only control what we put out to an extent, but we can't control how it's seen.