(sh)It Happens: It's only human

We were not created to be the same. We are not meant to be the same. We were created differently. We are meant to be different. These differences are what makes us human. It is both a gift and a curse. It has given us some of the greatest artists and some of the greatest anarchists as well (and sometimes both are the #sameguy). But what it has given us the most is something so simple yet so difficult to understand - right and wrong, good and bad, black and white...so much so that everything is grey.

The more I think about it, the clearer it becomes. To me at least. And that's the whole point. What may seem as clear as a bright sunny day to me might seem like a foggy winter morning to someone else. Something that makes me jump out of my skin with horror may not even bother someone else enough to get a reaction out of them. What I may see as beautiful and elegant may look grotesque and ugly to another. Music to my ears, noise that makes his ears bleed. A combination of different flavors just the thought of which makes my mouth water, an abomination which makes someone else's stomach turn. You get the idea, I hope, because it's quite possible that you didn't.

So everyone is different, but some are more different than others. (Mostly) Everything is distributed normally, i.e. the maximum number of people agree with what can be termed as "common sense" and there is a decreasing variation on either side of this view. These cases range from the 'slightly different' to the 'poles apart' in their thinking. This variation is a result of who that person is and what he thinks. So, while you might encounter people who agree with you, the people who don't agree are not doing it intentionally. They are different, and they see, hear and understand things differently. Hence, they think and act differently.

I can't help but believe that this is why all conflicts occur. If only we could see the other person's point of view, we would understand the reason behind the friction. A little thing called empathy does go a long way to help you do that, but it isn't enough. Empathy is a tough not to crack, the hardest part of which is to be able to control your own emotions. Having someone disagree with you is not a pleasant thought for (almost) anybody. Instinct tells me to correct and defend rather than introspect and comprehend. And it is all downhill from there. So is my train of thought, dammit!

What I'm trying to get to is that common sense is uncommon not because people are idiots, but because they are different and it doesn't occur naturally to them. The same applies to you and me as well. Instead of trying to understand the reasons behind the conflict, understanding the people behind those reasons is important, according to me at least.