• Author: Unknown
• Editor: B-7413
• Newspaper: The Umpire volume 5
• Page Number:
• Date: 2 2 1916
• Tags:
• advice

CLEAR AWAY MISUNDERSTANDINGS There can be no question that there are but few misunderstandings that will outlast a personal meeting and a sincere heart-to heart talk. It is a comparatively easy matter to write a partial apology, but to do so usually tends to tangle ourselves into all kinds of snarls and misunderstandings, and the more we may write the worse the tangle becomes. This leads us to believe that the very best way to straighten out snarls is to arrange for a talk, and settle matters in a reasonable way. When we talk, what we say is in part explained by the expression of our faces—it can be read in the light of the eyes and in the smile—and we can see at once whether our meaning is made clear, or, whether it is misunderstood, by the way in which it is received. When we write to another the words stand alone for themselves, and sometimes a word may mean any one of several things. So that it would do us all good if we were to go at least halfway in a sincere and frank spirit to meet and shake hands with one another and say what is really so. As a sage once remarked, "life is too short to be wasted in petty misunderstandings," and especially those approachable by a personal meeting, which would enable one to clear away all clouds of doubt and unnecessary animosities.