Innocent Words
what are word for? (Photo credit: Darwin Bell)
It amazes me how innocent words can be taken out of context. Today has been my foot-in-mouth day, it seems. A friend sent me a text. Because I didn’t reply with capital letters to show enthusiasm in my words, they took it completely wrong. I tried to tell the person I was in the middle of something and it actually took effort just to send a response. They didn’t like that and got mad. Sorry, but that wasn’t my fault. I did respond. It wasn’t with a hateful comment or anything, but just a simple answer. If you are seriously that petty, then you have a problem–not me.
I also left a comment for someone that was meant to be humorous. They took it differently and I’m not sure what they really took it as, but the snide remark I got back just left me shaking my head. I actually like this person but I don’t like pissy responses.
My thing is why don’t people assume the best out of someone rather than assuming that someone is out to be mean or “get them”? There are times when all the pettiness and pissiness makes me just want to truly be the crazy ol’ cat lady and not really have to deal with the crap that goes with human interaction. I try to just take things at face value but there are times when people go out of their way to show you that is not what they meant at all. I don’t get it. I have lived too many years and dealt with too much nonsense to tolerate anymore of it.
It’s amazing how innocent words can be so inflammatory. The simplest thing can be taken out of context. Someone can be reading something and get a completely different interpretation than another person. For example, if I asked, “What is that you don’t like about that?” some people would read it just as it is. But someone else might read it like, “What is that you don’t like about that?” The tone completely changed and is now heating up. And you know as you said it the second way that your tone of voice really changed and your words became choppy.
Do yourself and others a favor. Give someone the benefit of the doubt. If it is written word, read it just as it is on the screen or page. That actually may be the way the writer intended.
Related articles
- Words (spiritualhypster.com)
- Words and Their Hierachy (tellobreiny10.wordpress.com)
