It would be a wonder if we would be able to share ideas without creating at least some misunderstanding.

The way we use words, symbols, or metaphors is deeply personal. It is based on our experience, history, and cultures we’ve learned to know. It is the conversations we have with one another that allow us to learn from our difference and enrich our perceptions.

But it requires us to be truly interested in the other person’s ideas and to be attentive to small gaps in our understanding to grow the shared culture and images.

The hurdle to it is our desire to be understood as we mean it.

It makes people hesitate to ask questions, to show that there might be misunderstandings, and to question their own understanding.

The less people ask, the less they realize how often their understanding differed.

In extremes, it leads to people expecting to be understood exactly as they meant it or to assume that what they understood was also what was meant.

It’s convenient until they realize that this is people talking to themselves.

Misunderstandings are opportunities to reconnect.