It's funny how ones words can get misconstrued so easily. One simple sentence can be interpreted a million different ways, depending on the person, the inflection, the actual words used, and of course, the mood of the recipient.
Conveniently we hear what we WANT to hear. Based on the filters we have developed for ourselves, a few words can be totally messed up and taken all wrong.
Recently (in recent months I should say), I have sent a few emails that, well lets say, "Blew Up" in my face. Let me preface this first, with the fact that I would NEVER EVER IN A MILLION YEARS WRITE A LETTER IF I KNEW IT WOULD HURT OR OFFEND!!! Which brings us to the first law of letter writing: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE!.
Now, I pride myself on being articulate. I'm very emotional, so I am pretty well versed on the reaction my letter is supposed to have! But in all honesty, when you write something, it is one sided and there is no real way to have a dialog with this. You are only working on a monolog. So, simply put, your words are left to the interpretation of the recipient without any inflection from your voice.
Inflection is HUGE! It's how we DELIVER a meaning in a sentence! Without it, you are really left with, well...just words!!! Without YOUR inflection, THEIR interpretation is at the mercy of THEIR filters that they grew up with, which can be as vast as the sea! So keep in mind, though you may be the greatest writer in the world, you are only as good as your audience. If your audience fails to interpret as you have written.....you yourself fail!
I couldn't have put it better myself. This has blown up in my face so many times. Text messages have even been taken wrong. However, I am also not one to be able to put things off and sometimes just have to get it out even when it ends up making it worse. I hate conflict and would do anything to avoid it. I also don't like when a friendship is fake and you can't say what is really on your mind without worrying about offending the other person. People should be able to work things out even when they have a total difference in opinions. That is what makes us all beautiful and unique. Love you Cat! Keep writing!
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