It is unfortunate that too many people cut potentially meaningful friendships through misunderstanding and assumptions about the other person. The reality is we can never fully know a person and understand them, and often we see things from a totally different perspective, and even speak a different emotional language. A tone of voice, a look, or a comment can easily be misinterpreted, and our response is to feel hurt or offended.
The best way to find out the truth is to ask questions to discover what the other person actually means. What a person means can be very different from an interpretation from your different perspective. Sometimes people may make a statement, and not tell you the reasons why they said it.
It does take more commitment to any relationship to push through communication difficulties and not rely on assumptions. We live in a world where we have become guarded and full of assumptions.
I think most people would rather make friends than enemies, and that if they understood that and not take things so personal, people might not be so offended by the remark that was meant to brighten their day. Believe me, there are people in this world who are polite and courteous. You just haven't met one yet.
- Kaoru
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