He said, she said, we said, I said, they said...

Earlier today I wrote Mr. Bourne his horoscope from yesterday's Sunday paper. He replied with what he thought the meaning of the horoscope was. I replied back telling him that this wasn't what I thought the meaning was at all. I immediately thought about the following scene from a Golden Girls episode:

 

Rose: Sophia, are you busy?

Sophia: Nah, I'm just drawing a line on the milk of magnesia bottle.

Rose: Why?

Sophia: I think the gardener's been sneaking a few sips!

Rose: I have a problem.

Sophia: All right. Take a sip, I'll draw another line.

Rose: No, no, it's not that . . . my boss at the center made a pass at me!

Sophia: Maybe you misunderstood; what exactly did he do?

Rose: He called me in his office and threw me down on the couch and kissed me!

Sophia: That's a pass . . . okay, I think I can help you. I'll tell you a story, Rose. Picture it--Sicily, 1922.

Blanche: [rushes in] Sophia, I have a problem! I just saw the guy I've been dating out with another woman! Now, what do you think I oughta do?

Sophia:I think you should sit down and picture Sicily, 1922. (Blanche sits) It was the worst of times; it was the worst of times. It was Sicily, 1922.

Dorothy:[enters] Ma, I have a problem.

Sophia: Just sit down and listen! First of all, is everyone who lives in this house here at this very moment!?

Dorothy: Yes.

Sophia: Then for the last time, PICTURE IT! Sicily, 1922! A beautiful young woman with breasts not unlike Brigitte Nielsen . . . except hers moved when she skipped! She comes walking down a picturesque country road when suddenly a yellow Rolls Royce pulls up and blocks her path!

Blanche: Ohhh! Who was in the Rolls?

Sophia: It doesn't matter, it's not important to the story. Anyway, the Rolls Royce moves on, and the girl finds her pepperoni is missing.

Rose: What happened to it, Sophia?

Sophia: Bambi ate it; how should I know?! You keep missing the point; the point is she has no pepperoni to bring to her family's table! She gets hysterical; she starts to run. She runs through the fields, the meadow, over the hill--until she comes to a raging river FILLED with pepperoni swimming upstream!

Dorothy: Ma, pepperoni swimming upstream?

Sophia: Yeah, I know, it's odd--pepperoni is a land meat. But there it was! She wades into the river, grabs an armful, and races home to feed her family. When she tells them the story, they think it's an act of God! But as it turns out a disgruntled pepperoni stuffer had blown up the factory in a neighboring town causing pepperoni to rain down over a hundred square miles--which is where the old Sicilian saying 'It's raining cats and pepperoni' comes from!

[Blanche, Rose and Dorothy all nod]

Sophia: Is this helping anyone yet; cause this sure feels like an ending to me.

Rose: Oh, it's helping me Sophia--what I got out of the story was that you should take a bad situation and make it better! [jumps up] I'm gonna tell my boss off![rushes out]

Blanche: That's not quite what I got out of it Sophia, I thought you were trying to tell me to dump my cheating boyfriend because there's lots of pepperoni in the sea!

Sophia: Yeah...that's exactly what I was trying to tell you.

Blanche: Thank you Sophia. [Blanche leaves]

Sophia: What about you, Dorothy, did I help you with your problem?

Dorothy: You sure did, Ma, I didn't know what to have for dinner. How about splitting a pepperoni pizza?

Sophia: Sure, you buying?

Dorothy: Does a pepperoni swim upstream?

Sophia: It did once, let's go!**

** Thanks http://wapedia.mobi/enwikiquote/The_Golden_Girls?t=3.6. for the above quotes.

It made me wonder if perhaps there are infinite ways different people can interpret the same situation. Mr. Bourne and I do it all of the time. One of us will say something and the other will take offense to it, not realizing that the other didn't mean it that way. Or, something that was meant to be serious will be laughed off as a joke. A number of years ago, author Stephenie Meyer started writing a book that would have been called Midnight Sun. It was the story told in the book Twilight from Edward Cullen's perspective. Although those characters are fictious, it was interesting to see how she spun the story of the same situations from another character's point of view. The two point of views were very different.

Why am I writing all of this? Sometimes we are quick to judge people based on a fleeting comment or a first glance. Someone that you may perceive as "snotty" or "arrogant" may be using it as a defence mechanism for something in their past. Perhaps someone who seems jovial all of the time is covering up deep seeded hurt. A shy person may simply be hesitant to open up to you because they've been criticized in the past. Maybe someone said something hurtful to you, but didn't realize how what they said may have affected you. Not only do we do this in relation to other people, we do it to ourselves. We will belittle or berate our bodies, personalities, careers...just about anything...because of what we think others think about us. Your "flaws" may just be in your mind or they may be beautiful to more people than you would ever imagine. They make you who you are. The lesson we should all learn is to be confident about who you are. Be respectful to other people. Don't judge people until you know for sure that you know 100% of their story.  Also, remember that there are two (and sometimes more) sides to a story.