I have met a few people that I have been sadly unable to classify or fit wholly into my worldview. It comes as more of a surprise that these people are people that I’ve known for a long time; long enough in some cases to think I know them well.
I find myself wondering why certain people under certain circumstances seem ingenuine. for example, when confronted with someone else’s hardship, one of these people might spill out condolences in a fountain of sympathy that even the recipient feels is unneccessary. It’s almost embarassing.
Why is it that people try to relate other people’s experiences to their own, but can allow themselves to come to very wrong conclusions as a result? I understand the need to find similarity for understanding, but that doesn’t mean that I have gone through the same experience as you. For example, if my experience talking to a doctor at the hospital was similar to the one when your uncle Jeb got his hand caught in the combine, that doesn’t mean I’m going to have to switch hands to drink coffee now.
This situation is frustrating. People can jump to many conclusions - It must be this, it must be that. I don’t know those people, haven’t talked to them, and don’t care what they think. But then the people that I do make the effort to talk to don’t seem to understand it even after I’ve laid it out fairly plainly for them. Why is that?
