Some Words On Words

Words are complicated things especially in english where the same word can mean different things.  For example, "bear" can either mean a furry woodland animal or what you think you can physically or mentally handle.  Sometimes the same sounding word can change meanings depending on how you spell it.  "Bare" sounds EXACTLY like "bear" but means empty or stripped down.

You have to be able to comprehend the meaning of SENTENCES, the words AROUND words, in order to interpret what a singular word means.  In other words, you can't take things out of context.

This happens all the time though and everyone does it.  We hear a snippet of someone else's conversation and think we know their life story.  We hear a sound bite and think we know what the person means.  Sometimes we may even be right but more times than not, we're wrong.  The word "assumption" starts with "ass" for a reason.  People who assume are asses.

Perfect example in my personal life involves the time I inconveniently hummed.  I was taking in my surroundings with pleasure and zoning out into my own thoughts as I'm wont to do.  This caused me to momentarily hum a little tune.  My sister, who was with me at the time though occupied with her son, took my humming to mean I was bored.  She was offended and though I tried repeatedly to explain myself, she refused to hear it.  To her, my humming could only mean one thing and I was in the wrong.

Bear, bear or bare?

Eventually she dropped it, but I haven't forgotten how it made me feel to be taken out of context and not allowed to defend myself.  It made me wonder how often I did it.

How many people hear of a police shooting these days and automatically assume the cop was in the wrong?  How many times has an incomplete story caused the public to vilify someone later proved to be innocent?  How many sound bites taken out of context have swung political elections?  Hillary emails anyone?  Romney's 99%?

It's easy to do the same thing to others that my sister did to me.  It's easy to be an ass and not even realize it.

But the world is a better place when we give people the benefit of the doubt, when we don't take sound bites at face value, when we take time to investigate the context before we get mad.  When we don't condemn someone without knowing the full story.

Never repost or retweet something without knowing the context.  Never respond cruelly to a post or a tweet without asking for clarification from the person who made it.  Never assume that you know what another person is thinking or going through.

In other words, sweeties, don't be an ass.