by Yusef Raahman Sudah

Created on: October 01, 2008   Last Updated: July 12, 2011

 The "best" of us have differences of opinions and points of view. How well do we really see with 20/20 vision? I certainly have learned tat hindsight is often better. Which brings into question how well we really see. When we learn to value hindsight we are questioning not our eyes but our mind. 

The right to have a different point of view is a treasured aspect of freedom. I am sure there are moments for each of us when we believe what we see is real only to find later it was not. Like first seeing a magician's trick we are amazed, but we know what we witnessed could not be true. We each have witnessed the morning sun peeks over the edge of our planet, this we normally call a "sunrise". What a mis-statement of fact! In truth it is not a "rising" of the sun at all. It is that we see the sun from our vantage point as inhabitants on our planet and when it comes our turn (literally) we see the stationary sun again which lives at the center of our solar system, yet we say that it is a sun rise.

If we understand this simple example and apply its reasoning to our opinion of "disrespect from another" we might likewise notice that a different point of view is simply a point of departure which can result in misunderstanding between people. Our use of language it is not only a measures our ability to achieve understanding, it is the most important  tool we possess as human beings to assure that we do understand. But like all "tools" language is only as good as the skill of the person that makes use of them. When used with good skill, good results are likely, when the opposite is true so are the results!

Generalizations should be avoided, but I would suggest that every person on Earth has experienced a misunderstanding with another human being. If there are those who can say this has never happened to them I would say, "well done"! But I would add, "just wait it will happen". Misunderstanding, if corrected, can be an opportunity to make a great friend of a great enemy. Take note that two of America's previous enemies are now America's greatest allies; Germany and Japan! I am not suggesting that war is a cure for misunderstanding but I am saying that making a friend of a previous enemy is possible.

Residing at the core of disrespect is poor communication. Disrespect begs for improved understanding from the parties in question. For those that have had the "good" fortune to have children and watched them mature, disrespect at some point is likely to be a hallmark

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