Misunderstandings
A free verse poem on the art of communicating
‘If anything is more complex than a human being, it’s relationships between human beings.’ — Unknown
We are all artists
We are all painters
We are all storytellers
We constantly paint pictures in our minds
We constantly tell stories
we are a storytelling species
We constantly interpret what’s going on around—
through the lens of our narratives,
narratives shaped by our past
Our past
Everybody has one
Don’t forget
that we all have our
Childhood [traumas]
Education
Indoctrination
Cultural and social formation,
and all their expectations
Social bonding and peer pressure
And let’s not forget about genetic predispositions
That has shaped us
To whom we are now
The stories we tell
The pictures we paint
Of everything that’s happening now
are colored by the narratives in our minds—
the narratives shaped by the past
