A line on the series Vera that someone would make another understand has lead me to add this short thought.
It is impossible to make anyone understand, one can only demonstrate a thing and leave the other to discover it for themself. any attempt to do so may be offensive.
When we discover something there is an excitement that fills the mind with enthusiasm and the desire to share the discovery with others. But this takes from the other the chance to discover something for themselves.
We are taught ‘prove the case’ in our educational establishments, as if there is only one truth for all comers. Nothing could be further from the truth. Fortunately the introduction of computers, with the ability to follow multiple strands, demonstrates that there are often many answers to a single situation.
With regard to personal interaction each person’s experience is unique to them. The lessons they draw from these experiences are in a state of change and many lessons are drawn from a single experience. The attempt by anyone to determine the course of thinking – to make someone understand – is futile, as well as arrogant. Yet it is a common failure of the young to attempt to do so.
We are taught to do so, as if life was a legal process. Prove it, is the cry. Yet there is no proof, only the acceptance of an idea, or process, by others. An individual choice. Please don’t impose your ideas on me and my experience. I am able to do that for myself, and sometimes need to revise my ideas, but not at your behest, or worse, your demand.
