persepts and presepts
I've always felt I was perceptive. Not like regular perceptive, like I was unnaturally skilled. Able to pick up on the most subtle of social cues. I think this is why im funny. It takes a pretty high degree of sitational awareness to be able to carefully craft a good joke. Of course, ive dropped the ball as much as the next guy, so maybe im not all that funny after all, just lucky. I dunno. Either way, thats how I feel.
I feel like I understand my friends, alot of times better than they do. I don't know why, it's really a pretty bold thing to say. I mean who am I to think I know anything about anyone? none the less, I had a shocking realization today, when it occurred to me that one of my best friends, is doing something that I completely dont understand!! How can this be? As usual, I set about writing it down. Thats how I usually work through my problems. Come up with some crazy story or something, put myself in their shoes and try to understand whats going through their head. It's pretty effective, and most often I realize something about myself. Because thats the truth of it all, when you try to look at something through someone's eyes, what your really doing is looking at it with your eyes, but from where they're standing. You can't really bring that person's secret prejudices into the equation, no more than you can expel your own. So you think about what you would do in that situation, and then you think about how this person has reacted to things in the past, and maybe you can understand why their doing what their doing. But probably, you just sympathize. Thats what usually happens to me, and I think thats why people often think im understanding. I dont really understand, but i've found a reason to be compassionate. Maybe thats what people mean when they say that someone is understanding. Not that they really thinkg you understand specifically what's going on, but just enough to step back and say ya know what, I don't know whats going on, but I know that you are a good person, and so, Ill trust you, and ill stand beside you, and when you finish this crazy thing your doing, ill be there with you to deal with the consequences, whatever they may be. I think thats a certain kind of understanding, maybe not that understanding that I originally had in mind, but its like you reach an understanding with this person that they need to do this. And sometimes thats what people need. Alot of the time, thats what people need. When your friends come to you, with some issue, or avoid you, because of something you dont understand. Maybe thats what their looking for, someone to say that they understand that what your doing is important to you. And when someone walks away from you, maybe they hide from you, maybe its because their afraid that you wont reach this understanding.
I know often I look at other people, and assume that somewhere there is a foundation that this entire person is built upon, and that if you know someone well enough, you will see this foundation and have some kind of surpreme understanding of this person. I think when you get to know someone, you reach a place in them that seems pretty solid, and you even think that this place is it. And you think to yourself, that no one will ever understand you, because you are different. You are infinitly variable, but you are unique. When you really truly get to know someone, to the point that you actually love them. Friends, family whoever, I think then you realize that no one is built on a foundation of stone. Every single one of us is a fortress built on sand. Beneath it all, we are a shifting mass of thoughts and feelings. The tangible past is not what we are made up of. Yes, those moments are the brick and mortar of the castle, but the entire structure is at the mercy of the shifting sands. Who out there has not collapsed when something terrible has happened? Who has not fallen apart because they've been dumped, or because of a death or some other catastrophy? I think its when you really understand this about someone, when you place your feet in their sands, behold the ever changing dunes of their personality, thats when you realize that you will never truly know this person, because they will never know themselves. Your job isn't to know, this is the realm of the creator, It is He who directs the winds of your soul. As a man, your job is to live here, and help each other. And its only when someone's castle leans on your own, and the sands begin to shift, the foundation seems to fall away, but you still stand, not because you can, but because you must, for someone else, I think thats a certain kind of understanding. Your friend understands that she can lean as hard as she wants, because individually, your foundations rest on the sands of self, but together, your foundations rest on a sea of love, and nothing can take that away.
~markis
I feel like I understand my friends, alot of times better than they do. I don't know why, it's really a pretty bold thing to say. I mean who am I to think I know anything about anyone? none the less, I had a shocking realization today, when it occurred to me that one of my best friends, is doing something that I completely dont understand!! How can this be? As usual, I set about writing it down. Thats how I usually work through my problems. Come up with some crazy story or something, put myself in their shoes and try to understand whats going through their head. It's pretty effective, and most often I realize something about myself. Because thats the truth of it all, when you try to look at something through someone's eyes, what your really doing is looking at it with your eyes, but from where they're standing. You can't really bring that person's secret prejudices into the equation, no more than you can expel your own. So you think about what you would do in that situation, and then you think about how this person has reacted to things in the past, and maybe you can understand why their doing what their doing. But probably, you just sympathize. Thats what usually happens to me, and I think thats why people often think im understanding. I dont really understand, but i've found a reason to be compassionate. Maybe thats what people mean when they say that someone is understanding. Not that they really thinkg you understand specifically what's going on, but just enough to step back and say ya know what, I don't know whats going on, but I know that you are a good person, and so, Ill trust you, and ill stand beside you, and when you finish this crazy thing your doing, ill be there with you to deal with the consequences, whatever they may be. I think thats a certain kind of understanding, maybe not that understanding that I originally had in mind, but its like you reach an understanding with this person that they need to do this. And sometimes thats what people need. Alot of the time, thats what people need. When your friends come to you, with some issue, or avoid you, because of something you dont understand. Maybe thats what their looking for, someone to say that they understand that what your doing is important to you. And when someone walks away from you, maybe they hide from you, maybe its because their afraid that you wont reach this understanding.
I know often I look at other people, and assume that somewhere there is a foundation that this entire person is built upon, and that if you know someone well enough, you will see this foundation and have some kind of surpreme understanding of this person. I think when you get to know someone, you reach a place in them that seems pretty solid, and you even think that this place is it. And you think to yourself, that no one will ever understand you, because you are different. You are infinitly variable, but you are unique. When you really truly get to know someone, to the point that you actually love them. Friends, family whoever, I think then you realize that no one is built on a foundation of stone. Every single one of us is a fortress built on sand. Beneath it all, we are a shifting mass of thoughts and feelings. The tangible past is not what we are made up of. Yes, those moments are the brick and mortar of the castle, but the entire structure is at the mercy of the shifting sands. Who out there has not collapsed when something terrible has happened? Who has not fallen apart because they've been dumped, or because of a death or some other catastrophy? I think its when you really understand this about someone, when you place your feet in their sands, behold the ever changing dunes of their personality, thats when you realize that you will never truly know this person, because they will never know themselves. Your job isn't to know, this is the realm of the creator, It is He who directs the winds of your soul. As a man, your job is to live here, and help each other. And its only when someone's castle leans on your own, and the sands begin to shift, the foundation seems to fall away, but you still stand, not because you can, but because you must, for someone else, I think thats a certain kind of understanding. Your friend understands that she can lean as hard as she wants, because individually, your foundations rest on the sands of self, but together, your foundations rest on a sea of love, and nothing can take that away.
~markis