Three Perspectives

Have you ever been stood up for a date that wasn’t yet scheduled? A suggestion of “let’s plan to get together,” followed by protracted silence? Yeah, if you look carefully at the precursor conversations and conduct an honest assessment of the situation, you’ll find that you’ve been had. Played like a cheap violin. Your emotions, molded as easily as clay, conformed to someone else’s desired shapes, where they began to harden. And, now, they are brittle, as breakable as fragile thin glass.

Have you ever said to someone, “let’s plan to get together,” without really meaning it? It was easier than telling the truth, that the person to whom you’re speaking either bores or annoys you or…simply doesn’t interest you. Well, your mistake was in setting unrealistic expectations; giving the impression that a relationship might be in the offing. You inadvertently took the person’s emotions into your hands and, through your silence, appear ready to dash them against the rocks.

Have you ever witnessed a misunderstanding between two people evolve before your eyes? One of the two has an obvious interest in the other; the interest isn’t reciprocal, but the object of interest is kind in a noncommittal sort of way. You watched expectations of the one blossom as the other concluded the casual brush-off succeeded. As a witness, you didn’t expect to be called upon as arbiter of truth and emotional validation, but that’s what will happen. You were drawn in to an emotional battle which both sides lost; and the war correspondent was taken prisoner.

About John Swinburn

"Love not what you are but what you may become."― Miguel de Cervantes
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