her sudden irriation sat me back in my chair ...
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A friend began a conversation online by asking me what I see in years ahead.
Wanting to be positive, and not having any trouble doing so, as usual, I went with my first thought.
I wrote "Excitement !!!"
A very easy answer for me because I cannot imagine how anyone can make it through a day with all the challenges we face and actually stay "calm"
Everyone wants me to be "more positive" it seems, not quite comprehending how insanely *positive* I am already.
I do try.
Over the next half hour we talked of many things, I explained a complex process she had not thought of, and we mostly agreed on a variety of subjects.
I admitted that I had forgotten it was she who had sent me a certain article which I found extremely informative - too many things coming in here to remember where they all come from
What surprised me after all the things we shared was her sudden irritation.
Yes, I CAN "hear" that right through the little black and white characters feeding into my screen.
"How can you be excited about misery and people dying?" she demanded of me.
I said to myself, "HUH?" and sat back, staring at my screen.
"I cannot think of anything I said that might make you think that I would EVER be excited about people dying," I wrote back.
"Go back and read the first thing you said in this conversation," she said.
Uh ... "That is not what I meant," I said ...
.
A friend began a conversation online by asking me what I see in years ahead.
Wanting to be positive, and not having any trouble doing so, as usual, I went with my first thought.
I wrote "Excitement !!!"
A very easy answer for me because I cannot imagine how anyone can make it through a day with all the challenges we face and actually stay "calm"
Everyone wants me to be "more positive" it seems, not quite comprehending how insanely *positive* I am already.
I do try.
Over the next half hour we talked of many things, I explained a complex process she had not thought of, and we mostly agreed on a variety of subjects.
I admitted that I had forgotten it was she who had sent me a certain article which I found extremely informative - too many things coming in here to remember where they all come from
What surprised me after all the things we shared was her sudden irritation.
Yes, I CAN "hear" that right through the little black and white characters feeding into my screen.
"How can you be excited about misery and people dying?" she demanded of me.
I said to myself, "HUH?" and sat back, staring at my screen.
"I cannot think of anything I said that might make you think that I would EVER be excited about people dying," I wrote back.
"Go back and read the first thing you said in this conversation," she said.
Uh ... "That is not what I meant," I said ...
.
Labels: communication, excitement, sharing, understanding
posted by JamesB at 8:01 AM
2 Comments:
The way I see it, you were set up, and you missed it. When I'm asked questions like that, my first response usually is "in what regard?" I hate getting trapped by an open ended question when I'm not sure where the other person is coming from, because it's possible that, in their mind at the time, there's only one correct answer. It's kind of like being asked "do I look fat in this?" Inherently unfair, but so goes the times of multiple communication by similar words, right?
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All in good fun, Mitch - thanks !
That is a problem with PMs
At least with the blog I can get a good run at it : )
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