"I become more and more certain, as the years go by, that wherever friendship is destroyed,
or homes are broken,
or precious ties are severed,
there is a failure of imagination.
Someone is too intent on justifying himself, or herself, never venturing out to imagine the way things seem to the other person.
Imagination is shut off and sympathy dies.
If we know what it is that makes other people speak or act as they do,
if we knew it vividly by carefully imagining all that may lie behind it, we might not quarrel.
We might understand.
Often we could heal the wounds.
But even where that is not possible - even where fuller understanding only leaves us rather sad and helpless, it would still give us the power to be kind - to act yes, but still to be kind - to go on being kind.
And in a harsh world, God knows that even that is something - to go on being kind.
(A. Powell Davies, 1902 - 1957)
The line about justifying oneself hit me this morning. Often times I find myself wanting to 'fight back' with my words in order to prove that I'm right. Then after reflecting on the moment, I realize it was not worth the relational damage. Thanks for the post; a great one for me to reflect upon this morning!
Oooooooh, Liz. You are not alone in the desire to justify or fight back or prove oneself right! In the moment, the temptation to do those things is so great, isn't it? But in the end, those things get us nowhere except to further damage relationships. I am so with you on needing to work on this. Thanks for reading and taking the time to respond!!!
This also rang with me today! Makes you question whether having the last word is worth the damage!