Woody, from Toy Story, was always someone Andy could count on.

However, Woody is fiction and so is the vast numbers of people you can count on.

Today’s post is not a pessimistic world view, but you can count on five people, maybe.

You can count on your parents, usually. You can count on your siblings, oftentimes. You can count on bestfriends, sometimes. You can count on professionals, reasonably speaking. You can count on your spouse, about half of the time. Anyone else? Don’t count on it.

That co-worker that said the orange shirt looked good on you told your other co-worker it looked like you worked at Orange Julius. That friend from the gym, isn’t so friendly behind your back. That acquaintance from tennis that always smiles, is not smiling when they’re recounting the latest bit of gossip, that they know is not true…

A wise man once said, “If you have no expectations of people, you will not be disappointed.”

Humans are imperfect creatures. We all mess up. Sometimes in big public ways that lend themselves to public scorn, sometimes in private, discreet manners that result in no harm, no foul. However, we all mess up. Remember that.

Matthew Thompson is a family law/civil defense attorney and often gives the advice- prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and you’ll usually end up somewhere in between.