little miss communication

Writing these posts was a response to a challenge suggestion by a friend after some chat one day. The next day I read a post he made on his own blog about something I had said and it made me think about the effects our words have on others.

The most innocuous things we say can have the most profound effects. Things we say in jest or as a "throw-away" can be interpreted or heard very differently by the person we're talking to. Sometimes I think it'd be better if all communication was written - that way there'd be plenty of time to write, draft, re-write and so on so as to make sure that our message was heard in the way we intended it to be.

I know that my own emotions at the time have a lot to do with the way I hear and interpret what someone else is saying. We can never really know exactly what is going on in someone else's head and what they are thinking, and the words of others' are always skewed by our own understanding and experiences.

Wouldn't it be great to live in a world where everyone always understood everyone else clearly?