Inspector Clouseau
The vast majority of us would make terrible detectives. We assume. We make assumptions based on little or biased information. We make judgments and decisions about what someone said or did, or didn’t say or do, or how they did or didn’t do it or say it.
Obviously (or not) an incorrect interpretation will lead to an incorrect response. That could lead to withdrawal, anger, and in-kind treatment of another. None of those will lead to our growth. It doesn’t help us and therefore by definition and extension help anyone else.
“Assumptions are the termites of relationships.” – Henry Winkler
Instead of assuming we should first get more information, including or particularly about ourselves. There is a teaching that when you see something in another that you don’t like, you are to see that person as though you were looking at your own reflection in a pool of water.
“We don’t always see things as they are, we see things as we are.” – Anais Nin
“It is better for my enemy to see good in me than for me to see evil in him”. — Yiddish proverb
