There's Always More.

My friend, who went to a National Park, was
telling me some more stories of things that
happened in his travels.

One interesting tidbit was when he was hiking
one day. He had spent 7 hours hiking up, and
was on his way down. He was tired, wet (there
were some beautiful waterfalls) and sweaty.
He was in a hurry to get to where he could
take a shower, relax, and take care of himself.

He passed a couple with a young child, and
as he passed, going pretty quickly, the
woman made some snide remarks about how
beautiful things were, and about how one
couldn't take the time to actually look,
"of course" referring indirectly to my
friend.

Now while she may have had a well intentioned
point, and while there may be some that will
ignore the surrounding beauty and plow through,
that certainly wasn't the case with my friend.
He even had 100s of pictures to prove that he
had taken his time and enjoyed the beauty.

It made me think about perspective, and how
we can be so sure of another person's
experience when, in fact, we haven't got
a clue. But that doesn't stop us from treating
a person according to our perception.

As common as this is, it is something that is
often overlooked when we are caught up in our
own head and own perspective. If she had
known what my friend's experience was, and
how he was feeling at that moment she may have
not been so quick to judge, and may have even
been glad to know that he had had such a great
day and would have been glad to know that he
was getting to where it was best for him to
be as expediently as possible.

It makes me wonder how often we assign negativity
to something that actually is quite positive.

I wonder if you caught something about the
situation and what I wrote. To some degree
the representation of the events makes it seem
like she was the "bad" guy, while what she
said may have not been targeted toward him
at all, but rather a coincidence of timing.

There is no way to know, and that is part of
the point. However, there may be times we
could be correct, but in times like those,
I seriously doubt a snide comment is going
to have a great impact on another - at least
not in a positive way.

If a person's intention is to be heard, it is
best to speak in a way that another would be
willing to listen, and making someone feel
guilty or bad or wrong for what they've done
may kick in the defense mechanisms. It could
also have a deafening effect or create the
antithesis of the desired result.

I suppose the point is to take in more than
just what is perceived in the moment. There
is likely to be more going on in that person's
world and mind than is readily apparent.

Perhaps it should be even taken a step further.
Perhaps it is none of our business what is
going on in that person's mind and world -
unless they want us to know and/or care what
we may have to say or do about it.

Funny thing is, though...if that was the case,
there wouldn't be much news to report, no gossip
shows or media websites. Wow. We might find
that we need to focus on ourselves and our world
instead. Wouldn't THAT be something?

(Yes. I know there is more to the picture.
There always is.)

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