MISUNDERSTOOD

If there is one thing we need to understand,
it is how to deal with being misunderstood.

In fact, when the other says,
“I understand”,
I need to stand there in silence,
humbly and calmly saying to myself,
“I sort of understand why you just said that,
because I say the same thing all the time,
but right now both of us don’t understand.”

So I understand 
that parents don’t understand kids,
coaches their players, teachers their students,
and vice versa, and then some more,
and then some more after that.

And I understand taking this stance
can make me cynical or angry or both.

It’s life! Classroom Earth.

But I also understand, this is
what can challenge me to listen,
to probe, to ponder, to pray,

and especially to be humble.

This is what can challenge me
to try to understand fiction and non-fiction.

This is what can get me to taste the tears
running down my face in songs, movies,
plays and poems and family hurts.

I guess this is why 
artists paint paintings

or sculpt sculptures. 
I guess

they are trying to get glimpses,
tiny understandings, of the human condition

and everyday situations.

So God, I don’t understand You

or it. In fact, I understand,

I misunderstand You,

and the it of every day.

So it’s back to Shakespeare and the comics,
the Psalms and the Parables – aches and pains,

laughing in the middle of traffic tie-ups,
and life's million misunderstandings
and one million and one miracles. Amen.

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2009