MISUNDERSTOOD

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7, 18 February 1909, Page 277

MISUNDERSTOOD

Perhaps it were better for most of us to complain loss of being misunderstood and to take care that we don't misunderstand other people. It ought to make us pause at times to remember that each one has a stock of cut-and-dried judgment on his neighbors, and that the chances are most of them quite erroneous. What our neighbor is we may be pretty certain that he is not what we have imagined, and that many things we have thought of him are quite beside the mark. What he does we have seen, but we have no idea what may have been his thoughts and intentions. The mere surface of his character may be exposed, but of the complexity within we" have -not the faintest idea. People filled with self-consciousness " and self-conceit are .often praised as . humble, while shy and reserved people are judged to be proud. Some whose life is one subtle, studied selfishness, get the - name of selfsacrifice, and other silent, heroic souls are condemned for want of humanity.