Interpreting one way or another, discuss ..

Posted on January 22, 2018

I start the week with a different type of post compared to the last few.

Over the weekend I’ve been thinking about how we each see things. It sometimes depends on if what we see is of personal interest.  It also depends on our state of mind.

For example, my husband is an avid football fan.  He screams and shouts at matches on tv.  He jumps up out of his chair with distress or happiness at decisions and goals. If I am in the same room, all I see is 22 men running up and down with a ball – to me it could be the same 22 men from the last match, and the match before, etc.

I love to craft, knit especially.  I admire yarns, patterns, textures, have always a project to hand.  To my husband, a non-knitter, they look practically the same.  In fact I can sit and knit right next to him and he won’t recognise that during one evening one project in my hand has been switched for another.  It’s just me sitting knitting.

On Saturday, we drove past a local church and I read their noticeboard out loud.  I am not a religious person at all and I hope I offend no-one by talking about this here. It said ‘Friend Request’ ‘Jesus’, with an icon as if it was a popular social media site.  It made me chuckle and comment that this particular church is always trying to attract members, perhaps this time from the younger generation. My husband thought totally the opposite.  He said it was alienating younger people, being sarcastic that if they were on a social media site they wouldn’t consider the church as it was old fashioned.  There followed a good discussion between us, one with no conclusion, but it did make me think we may sometimes see things a lot differently.

This is more than ‘Men are from Mars/Women are from Venus’ (John Gray, 1992). We’ve been together a long time and I think we read each other pretty well.

I also read In the Moment Magazine, a fairly new publication to me. This was an issue from October last year, passed to me by a friend who thought I would love it – and I do!  There is a lot of mindfulness discussion within this magazine, suggesting we take time to enjoy life rather than miss it.  In a hectic world I think so many people run fast and don’t see the important things let alone the less important.  I read a couple of articles to my lovely husband.  At first he was dismissive, saying it looked like a lot of ‘happy, clappy rubbish’, then he agreed some things I was saying actually made sense.  He does have a very busy work life, perhaps there isn’t a good work/life balance at the moment and it needs to change.

http://www.calmmoment.com/magazines/in-the-moment/

I took a hint from that magazine, contacted a friend who I hadn’t seen for several years (social media contact does not give the same satisfaction as face to face, quote!).  Today we meet up for the first time in ages.

That’s me for today. Have a good one!