Imperfection of Words in a Perfect Marriage

Human Understanding.  The Imperfection of Words.  Oh, how this resonates in my life...more specifically, my relationship and communication with my husband.  How many times have I heard that communication is key in a relationship?  A lot!  And, some may think it's so easy to communicate, but we forget that communication is more than finding words that (in your head) fit how you're feeling.  You also have to relate the words that express how you're feeling to another person and hope that they are able to also share the understanding of what you're trying to communicate.  Phew!  That sounds like hard work!!

For instance, I can ask my husband to clean up whether through a note or verbally.  Then, I'll come home and find that things are straightened up in piles, but not put away.  His version of "clean" is to have organized piles.  My version of "clean" is to then take the piles and put each item where it should belong.  Perhaps this differing of how we each understand the words would cause disagreements.  Each party is doing something "right", but it might not be what the other person had in mind.  I feel like this happens all the time, unfortunately that was the best example I could come up with.  Once I finish the blog, another example will unsurface in my reality.

Unrelated to my marriage (although it was a conversation between my husband and his friend)... The movie, "Drive" is an example of how words can have different meaning in different people's minds.  My husband's friend said she didn't like the movie "Drive", because there wasn't enough scenes with people driving cars.  My husband said that he took "drive" to mean someone's motivation in life or certain situation, and he thought that that was achieved in the movie. 

Locke put to words the imperfection of words.  The ambiguity of words which makes them left up to interpretation.  The difficulty, therefore, is relating the interpretation to others to effectively communicate.  One must constantly work at honing their communication skills, thus marriage is always work.

-Alessandra M.