The Voice of Assumption

      Assumptions are built on presumptions…and presumptions are the threads of tangled misunderstandings that assumptions are built upon. Presumptions seem to breed like rabbits. Once one presumes anything, our mind is masterful at creating more and more and more…and before you know it…WHAM…we are lost in one big assumption!! Once recognized that a misunderstanding has occurred based upon assumptions made, it leaves a nasty aftertaste of dirty show leather in my mouth! And even though my mom told me that “God made dirt and dirt don’t hurt!” I don’t like that kind of dirty taste. Sometimes assumptions are harmless and funny and other times feel more like an accident with two cars at an intersection, each turning without awareness and crashing into each other. If you have not heard the term let me remind or share: When I assume I make an ass out of u and me!

I am a right brained person. Apparently, the right brain is the creative part of me. It is what allows me to write (gratefully so) and to have the ability to draw simple flowers and trees as I doodle while on the phone. It is ripe for assumptions, being the artist and idealist that I am. My left brain, however, is more than the logical part of me…(even though in many ways I am logical and practical)! It also helps with math and business and negotiations and bookkeeping…practical things that are fine and definitely have their place. But practical as they may be, they are not necessarily friendly with my dominate right brain. I do know this to be true about my right brained assumptions: my intentions are always good; my results sometimes…not so good; the eventual outcomes are, most the time, above average. To get there, I use a lot of white out, a very painful and slow process of editing, clarifying and rewriting script.  

In the meantime, I swim through the muck of my assumptions (assuming that I have been clear, assuming that I have been heard, assuming that I have been understood) only to find out that rather than floating downstream, I am sitting in a mud bath.  Assumptions are like that, muddy but can be healthy if we learn from them. I am learning that I can somehow reduce my frequency of assumptions if I take time to really listen to others, ask questions, and not rush toward the finish line. But I don’t think that assumptions can be avoided altogether. That is life…and life (I have decided) is a lot of mud baths and clean streams. We just need to recognize which one we are up to our ears in!!