Understanding People

Very often we think that we understand people, but… do we really? On a daily basis we see things happening around us that we consider out of order. We wonder what made some people do this or do that. We wonder why some people are so stubborn and will never change their minds. We wonder why some people never take what we consider the “reasonable” path… The problem is that we take these things absolutely out of context and we only think about them in terms of our personal life experiences, because that’s all we know… and that’s why we don’t understand them.

Do we ever stop to think about the socio-political environment where these people grew up? Do we ever think about their family circumstances? Do we ever think about the gaps in their education? Have we ever stopped to think that each person’s values and beliefs depend on all sorts of environmental circumstances including their religious upbringing? And, sometimes, we think we are clever enough to change all these aspects of someone’s life which, as a matter of fact, are so deeply rooted that have become part of the people they are and can’t unfortunately be changed. And not only that, we also sometimes think we have a right to criticise them as if their unusual behaviour was just a sudden twist in their minds, that they’re just thoughtless unreasonable people who don’t want to listen to anybody… Well, think again.

It is very difficult to understand some people’s actions and feelings simply because it is very difficult to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. And that’s a fact! And we will never fully understand them unless we’re put through everything they’ve been through in their lives. We can only try… and maybe misunderstand.