Assumptions
Oct. 6th, 2005 05:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lurkitty"What I really hate is that he uses callerID as voicemail," my friend said in a disgruntled voice. It took me two beats to parse that remark. I had really never thought about that. Did I have friends who were expecting me to return phone calls because they had called when I was away from my cell and had not left a message? Please, Miss Post, can you tell me if that is rude nowadays?
Then I realized something. Their behavior is based on an assumption, not mine. That is my current barometer. You see, I was recently assigned a book to read called "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz. Since I can't work on all of them at the same time, right now I'm working on not two of the four. One is not making (or buying into) assumptions, and the other is not taking things personally. So, by calling and hanging up without leaving a message, the caller is assuming that I am savvy enough to realize I am supposed to call back. So, applying the standard of #2, I can't take that personally and kick myself for being rude.
Assumptions get us into trouble every day. Sometimes they can even be deadly. A man is prescribed a blood thinner for a pulmonary embolism. He stays on it for several months to make certain the embolism does not recur. His specialist releases him to his regular doctor. He changes doctors. The new doctor sees he's on a blood thinner and assumes he still needs it. Years go by and no one reevaluates the use of the blood thinner, though many other medical problems present themselves. Each specialist assumes the other has evaluated the need for it.
So, years later, this unnecessary medicine nearly kills the man whose life it saved years earlier.
Don't make assumptions. I'm really trying not to take the fact of my Dad's coumadin dosage personally...
Then I realized something. Their behavior is based on an assumption, not mine. That is my current barometer. You see, I was recently assigned a book to read called "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz. Since I can't work on all of them at the same time, right now I'm working on not two of the four. One is not making (or buying into) assumptions, and the other is not taking things personally. So, by calling and hanging up without leaving a message, the caller is assuming that I am savvy enough to realize I am supposed to call back. So, applying the standard of #2, I can't take that personally and kick myself for being rude.
Assumptions get us into trouble every day. Sometimes they can even be deadly. A man is prescribed a blood thinner for a pulmonary embolism. He stays on it for several months to make certain the embolism does not recur. His specialist releases him to his regular doctor. He changes doctors. The new doctor sees he's on a blood thinner and assumes he still needs it. Years go by and no one reevaluates the use of the blood thinner, though many other medical problems present themselves. Each specialist assumes the other has evaluated the need for it.
So, years later, this unnecessary medicine nearly kills the man whose life it saved years earlier.
Don't make assumptions. I'm really trying not to take the fact of my Dad's coumadin dosage personally...
