Listen.

Miscommunication sucks.

The people involved in this travesty feel unheard and underappreciated.

Each only focus on what they were trying to say

and what the other person didn’t understand.

Each only sees their side of the story.

This takes place within light family dinner conversations,

friendly interactions between acquaintances,

heated debates between politically active friends,

late night heart-to-hearts between roommates,

expressions of feeling between romantic partners,

there is no escaping it.

The sad thing is,

wherever you go,

whomever you interact with,

there will always be some level of this lack of understanding.

This is mainly because we cannot read minds

and we each have our unique perspectives that have been built up in layers from our unique experiences that nobody else has had.

The way that we combat this frustration is by trying to think like the other person,

by trying to see ourselves in the other’s shoes,

by trying to look at the situation from their perspective.

This still doesn’t work because we tend to assume too much of the other

and then the miscommunication continues and gets worse.

“You don’t know me, you don’t know my life, you don’t know what I’ve been through!”

People get insulted.

They feel even more unheard and underappreciated.

Maybe what we need to do is listen,

with our ears.

Focussing only on getting our point across may be our main objective in the conversation

but in doing so we end up talking to ourselves,

not learning new information,

new ways of thinking,

new ideas from others who have their unique perspectives that have been built up in layers from their unique experiences.

Maybe if we just listen to those we talk to we can understand them a little better

and ergo,

understand ourselves a little better too.

As we all try to figure out who we are and why we are on this confusing and complicated planet,

being able to see the connections and links between the people we come in contact with

allows us to figure out the way we are in relation to them.

How we act,

react,

interact.

Our identity depends on this.

Let’s exchange this miscommunication with genuine conversation.

Listen, and be listened to.