Tuesday, July 03, 2007Bruxistic
Hello, previous posts! Did you have a good night? Did you sleep well?
Sophie's Maxim for Today: The thinking that one knows people is inversely proportional to really knowing them.
It's true because the mere presumption of thinking that you know someone is bound to get in the way of fair and objective assessment (from the Latin ad sedere, meaning "to sit down beside"; I still think it's funny that I had to take Latin in school but, yes, it has its non-trivial uses). When you think you "know" someone, you create a whole set of expectations--more reflective of yourself than anything--that the object under consideration might or might not meet, depending on ability, principle, or poached when they wanted fried. Too many interpersonal relationships are actually transferences in disguise, with both sides wanting the couch. Let us agree, therefore, to be strangers of good albeit impersonal will. There can be no greater mark of respect.*
Salut!
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*Obviously, I have yet to reconcile myself to 20th-century mores. My maternal grandmother (BHS!) who took care of me until I was 10 taught me that combing one's hair in public is a sure sign of ill-breeding. I have been going around with bad hair ever since.
Sophie's Maxim for Today: The thinking that one knows people is inversely proportional to really knowing them.
It's true because the mere presumption of thinking that you know someone is bound to get in the way of fair and objective assessment (from the Latin ad sedere, meaning "to sit down beside"; I still think it's funny that I had to take Latin in school but, yes, it has its non-trivial uses). When you think you "know" someone, you create a whole set of expectations--more reflective of yourself than anything--that the object under consideration might or might not meet, depending on ability, principle, or poached when they wanted fried. Too many interpersonal relationships are actually transferences in disguise, with both sides wanting the couch. Let us agree, therefore, to be strangers of good albeit impersonal will. There can be no greater mark of respect.*
Salut!
- - - - -
*Obviously, I have yet to reconcile myself to 20th-century mores. My maternal grandmother (BHS!) who took care of me until I was 10 taught me that combing one's hair in public is a sure sign of ill-breeding. I have been going around with bad hair ever since.
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