Have you ever wanted to be understood? Have you ever felt like you were not? Does the desire for being understood really also contain a desire to be accepted? It is possible to be accepted without being understood. It is possible to be loved without being understood. It is possible to have loyal friends and lovers who do not understand you. It is possible to be cared for by those who do not understand you. Why, then, is being understood so alluring? Why is the idea of it so intoxicating? It seems as if you could live your whole life without it, but it seems like most of us do not want to live our whole life without it. Why is that?
We also have to ask ourselves what we mean by "understood". Do we wish to be accurately profiled? Do we wish to be predictable to someone? Do we want someone to be able to finish our sentances? It seems like these things are not what we mean by "understood"- or at least they are not the full description of what we desire. It seems, actually, as if a person could spend enough time with us to be able to predict what we are going to do and finish our sentances, and the like- but still not really understand us.
So what is the allure of being understood? What do we really want?
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” -II Corinthians 12:9
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1 comment:
You know what I think of when I think of "being understood?" I think of that moment after every climbing trip when you make it back to the car and pack up your gear. There's always a pause where you have to sit in the car silently (even if for just a second) and look back the way you came from. It was in one of these pauses that Terry once said "I agree" out of nowhere and I realized we'd jsut had a profound conversation without saying a thing.
If you are truly understood then someone won't finish your sentences...because you won't feel the need to say anything in the first place. They'll already know.
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