Dear Friend

I’m not quite sure how to say this. I realize this is an awkward moment, and I apologize in advance if what I’m about to say hurts your feelings. I certainly value our friendship too much to jeopardize it over something which I fear might sound terribly petty.

I can assure you I’ve gone back and forth on this question for weeks now, trying to look at it from every angle and turning it over in my mind until I thought I might go mad. I think –I hope– that you know me well enough to recognize that I would never say anything to deliberately hurt you, and I have always been a man willing to bite my tongue if I thought it would in any way advance the cause of civility.

I’ve no doubt, in fact, that you are well aware of the perception of me as a man of no small reserve; that, at any rate, is how I believe the world sees me, and not without reason. I have rarely felt myself compelled or qualified to address another man’s shortcomings or pry into his personal business, even when, as now, I’ve been concerned for a friend’s well-being.

I’m sorry, I can see I’ve already alarmed you. It’s nothing, really.

Forget I ever mentioned it.