REVISIONIST HISTORY

How much of the past can be believed..... Let's face it, the past isn't always as simple as we remember. We all have specific (or non-specific) memories of events and the words that were spoken during them. AND unless we are a member of a reality show and have a video camera constantly following us around, we really don't have a way to prove, step by step, what exactly transpired. So being human, we put our own spin on things.

And sometimes this means that we don't communicate as clearly as we want to. Other times it means that the other person doesn't really hear what we want them to hear. Of course we want to say that they didn't listen well enough, but maybe it is that we didn't say what we thought we said.... or we said it in such a way that it wasn't understood the way we hoped it would be.

I know that this was a major issue in my marriage. In fact, it still seems to happen when I try to communicate with that now less than significant other. AND there is probably no one to blame or enough blame to go around and around and around again.

So maybe writing to that other person is one way to insure that he or she truly knows what we are sharing. Even then, it seems that things get lost in translation. So, should we give up trying to communicate? Or repeat ourselves incessantly each time adding a few different words or putting emphasis in different places in order to make sure our message gets through? That might help, but nothing really insures that down the road, a day or a week or a month from now, my words won't get twisted and turned into something other than I wanted them to be. Unless we can always carry around and be prepared to play back one of these:

I guess one of my favorite authors said it best (at least once or twice):

"I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful one-hundred percent!” 

― Dr. Seuss, Horton Hatches the Egg

“Be who you are and say what you feel,
because those who mind don't matter,
and those who matter don't mind.” 
― Dr. Seuss