Now I'm no social scientist. Heck, I'm not even a very good judge of character most of the time – just ask my ex-wife. And as I get older I find I'm becoming more and more socially inept and totally vacuous. But in one of my clearer moments I have figured out when someone makes a comment or statement we have two options of how to react:
1) The Smile Reaction. Even if we don't totally agree with what was said, at least we accept that their point of view has a possibility of holding some truth. At the very least, there is room for respect and cordial conversation. Because after all, there are very few certainties in life and who knows, we might learn something and build a new understanding, or
2) The Frown Reaction. We reject the thought outright as asinine without wasting any time giving it consideration. Consideration is just so wishy-washy. If we're going to be decisive and strong and have a committed stance we might as well go all the way and add a bit of nice radical indignation, bait the person with sarcasm and belittle them. This effectively ends any possibility of further communication... and makes life so simple.
There are lots of various reactions, of course, that fit into the social smiles and frowns spectrum, because life is very complex on purpose – it keeps us from being complacent.
Ultimately I've found the way we choose to react puts us on one of two paths. One path has the potential to lead to constructive situations with the possibility of cookies and ice cream, and the other path points to a whoop-ass acid reflux end.
Knowing how our reactions fit into the grand scheme of things may help us decide how to react. It's an abstract theory of course.
One that is open for both smiles and frowns...
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