Family is super-important.
If you have a family that you get along with, you should work hard to ensure those relationships are protected and maintained.
Why can it be so difficult to have a heavy conversation without things being said which can hurt people’s feelings?
As soon as a conversation becomes emotional, people become fantastically adept at misconstruing comments. It is so easy to assume the worst about a comment that was made, especially if it hits on a sore spot. I’m a recent culprit, I was fairly sure that the comment that really upset me wasn’t meant in the way that I took it, but I couldn’t get it out of my head.
I realise that these are disconnected thoughts/sentences, but it is something which really frustrates me. I can’t put enough thought into the grammar and sentence structure without becoming angry about the topic.
This is more of a thought dump in order to get some of this off of my chest.
I guess my point is that it happens so often that a simple conversation can snowball into a massive family-rending feud. Why do we let it happen? Its depressing to think that a conversation about a simple idea could have potentially ended in a huge years-long rift.
I don’t know many people who have an extended family that get along famously. There is almost always an ongoing feud between two parties. Aunty Judy said something about Nanna Ethel to Uncle Jack which was communicated through a third party to Aunty Sally who is a huge gossip. Sally told her friend Sarah who, unbeknownst to Sally happens to be good friends with Ethel. Ethel hears the information as it arrives from the Chinese Whispers News Line. Ethel confronts Judy who, in an attempt to clarify her position, dredges up a problem from years ago. Ethel storms off. Years pass.
Judy moves to Darwin in order to be away from the horrid family politics. They never speak again.
A neutral party would hear this list of events and say things like “Why don’t any of you get those two in a room and attempt to work this stuff out? It was only a misunderstanding!”
Unfortunately, it usually isn’t that easy. The rift has become so huge that neither of the parties are interested in sorting it out. Its too hard.
ARGH. Sometimes I hate stupid human nature.
