So I was thinking about worldviews today. I have a theory that everything you say to anyone else is misinterpreted always. Either you misinterpret it a little or a lot, but you're always wrong about what people are saying to you. I also think that, to an extent, it's better to live life with that in mind.
In a relationship between two people coming from different walks of life, context associated with words can differ greatly. I think people should take every word from one another by its Websters' definition, and build context newly by sharing experiences.
So my grandma died recently and the people at her funeral got along. They didn't choke each other because it was a funeral, but everyone was talking behind everyone else's back. I hit a wall with trying to assume that everyone has logical motives, when not everyone does. There were some things done to Grandma that were wrong and caused division between her children. Its sad to see people that way. Dad didn't even attend the funeral, saying that it wouldn't be completely about Grandma, and he was right. The funeral attendant announced the name of the person who organized the funeral at the beginning of each event therein, as if even in the face of Grandma's death the person had to make a point -- "no one helped me". Who was right? The others said that the person "Wouldn't let us help, even though we offered." I feel like I'm missing part of the story and I want to hear each person's side so I can know where the disunity is. Among logical and moral people, problems should only come from misunderstandings... right?
I'm going to send out a shotgun email to everyone who attended the funeral and try to start conversation. In a year or so I might take the people who respond and try to orchestrate a reunion. I know there is a lot of anger between my dad's siblings, and I think that if I can make myself a mutual friend of all of them, I can work on building bridges so that nobody has to die with regret in their heart. I can't imagine dieing with a grudge against my brother or sister.
"You will not surely die."
I have to say, this time I disagree. Misunderstandings are not our only option. They are common, no doubt, but there are somethings that cannot be misunderstood. God created us with a level of understanding that we might commune with each other. we are social creatures by design, and as such there is an underlying similarity between all of us that, if found, can be used to relate without misunderstanding.
ReplyDeleteThe other statement, about problems stemming from misunderstanding among logical and moral people is true, to my understanding. The difficulty comes in when that is assuming we all agree on logic and morals. our corrupt nature prevents us from having a perfect view on such things, therefore we will not all see it properly. So problems can stem from complete understanding between two people because of their incomplete understanding of God.