My mind has been dwelling on “understood” and “misunderstood”. In the English vocabulary, they are relatively soft words. To compare; Anger, hate, despise are heavy words. When misunderstood feels threatened, it too moves from a soft word to an aggressive word.
In a democratic society, when the courts of the land make an accusation and judgement, on the grounds of having been misunderstood, the verdict can be postponed for years. Within the last year or two, a criminal was apparently caught red-handed with narcotics to the value of $1-million and change. The case against this criminal was dropped because the law officer who apprehended him had been found guilty on some form of misdemeanor. Somewhere in the courts of today there are choices made that adhere strictly to the letter of the law, particularly when the guilty individual is of one of the misunderstood minorities.
In the courts of the country immediately to the south of us, the parents who had gifted their son with an assault type of firearm were awarded the repercussions of their failure to be responsible. The sentence, between 10 to 15 years behind bars. In this case, Caucasian perpetrator, and Caucasian victims. The trial was old-fashioned. Swift and true. As a result, a million people in the USA will reconsider the choice of gifts to bestow on their sons and daughters.
I am not writing about nationality, creed nor colour. I’m not writing about politics. I am drawing an example of how the term “misunderstood” can affect a simple solution; paralyze it and leave it in la-la Land.
So, if you feel misunderstood or if I do, how do we handle it? Can we be honest that we do, in fact, understand what the implied message should mean to us? Do we make it a jury and judge scene?
When you tap their ear and have them look in your face after they hit their mother, does your three-year-old misunderstand? No, they understand perfectly. You have no need to strike them, the way they struck their mother.
Did you know that the word “ethnic minorities” applies to every living human? We can teach our children that their pedigree does not measure up to that of their cousin, who comes from a more successful family. I agree one hundred percent that there are atrocities happening which are wholly hate-motivated. These actions are completely wrong.
As well, every day there are numerous cases in which misunderstanding damages profoundly. In attempting to address the concept that we should think soberly when we feel misunderstood, consider what the motive was that initiated the dialogue fostering feelings of misunderstanding. When I was in the chicken farming business, I placed 8,000 one-day-old chicks in my barn. Only 24 hours earlier they had been inside the egg. 7,998 of these chicks had full yellow markings. 2 of them, by nature’s fluke, were coal black! The coal black ones were taller and stronger than the average yellow chicks. After two days, I knew I needed to remove these 2 black chicks. I’ve never thought of chickens as being overly intelligent. But those yellow chicks immediately saw that the black ones were different. They, in mob fashion, pecked at the different ones. I have no doubt that in only a matter of a few more days the torture would have been over; and I’d have had 2 lifeless black chicks on the ground. From time to time, when there are misunderstandings, action must be taken.
