Typos and Assumptions

This is such a seemingly petty thing compared to what is going on around us. So I don’t offer this writing as a distraction in lieu of my concern for those who are directly affected by aftermath of storms, flooding, earthquake, violence or wildfires. My prayers continue for them and us.

One of the cries I hear repeatedly from people is “I am misunderstood.” I have felt that way much of my life. I felt misunderstood growing up because of the varied cultural differences between my immediate family and everybody else (especially the experiences of my classmates). I have been misunderstood as angry, passive, emotionless, hyper-sensitive, controlling, weak and the list goes on. Some, maybe all, of that happens because either I won’t let folks or the folks won’t let themselves get to know me. I totally understand that so where it matters most, I try my best to be authentic and transparent.

There is another kind of misunderstanding. I know we are now in the stage of human development where we must learn to text edit our texting communications. I’m not talking about trying to figure out the abbreviations or acronyms. I’ve noticed that there is this need for extra energy to incorporate interpretations of autocorrect liberties. Soooo frustrating btw! These are compounded by folks typing too fast omitting words that are actually pertinent. “I was told to make waves at work.” But what you really mean is “I was told not to make waves at work.” Kind of a big difference. But – hey, maybe I’m the only one who actually reads the full text and/or reads what I send. I think most people just expect me to figure it out which makes me wonder how important the communication is in the first place.

The other energy killer is the email attachment. I can only suppose the assumption is that the however-named attachment will magically identify itself when removed from the original email. But that’s not really the goal of the attachment, is it? Maybe attachments are like those Mission Impossible tapes that are supposed to self-destruct 5 seconds after they’ve been heard. I guess I’m the only one who actually keeps electronic files where attachments might end up. So if your resume comes to me as “myresume” and I file it with the others, I’ll just have a file of resumes from anonymous sources that I won’t bother to open. OR I’ll have to rename the attachment myself before filing. UGH. And when I’ve done that, I probably have misunderstood someone to be a little clueless, self-important, unobservant or ignorant.

IDK…