A Whole New World

Imagine if everyone had the belief that every single human being in the world was built being upon goodness. Imagine that they actually truly believed that no human would act irrationally without some purpose or intention that was positive. Even the most evil of people probably had their own intentions, which most didn't agree with, but nonetheless, it was a driving force that the person believed in and was motivated by to commit actions. Now imagine if we could actually take the time to see this positive intention within the other person.

For example, what if the daughter that is not allowed to go outside the house late on a Friday night sees her parents as people that care for her safety, and have that positive intention of protecting their child, instead of projecting the intention of "my parents never want me to have any fun"? Now, granted, perhaps there is a .0001% possibility that, in reality, our parents stayed up at night after they put us to bed at our bedtimes plotting and planning about how they could make their childrens' life a living hell (around an evil cauldron, or course), but, not likely.

Of course, the daughter in this example does not necessarily have to agree or succumb to the positive intention that she projects to her parents, but just understand it, so that she can see her parents as human beings instead of plotting monsters. I can imagine the conversation between them would probably have a different tone. This is just one side of it though, because the parents have an equal, if not greater responsibility, of projecting positive intentions for their daughter's behavior instead of "oh she's just a teen, those teens are always crazy according to TV."

What's amazing is that this concept can be taken from the home in our everyday family and work relationships, all the way to international relations. Imagine if the Israelis projected positive intentions to understand Palestinians and their actions, not so they can agree to them, but at least so they would understand them. If this was reciprocated on the other side, we might then be able to address root causes of conflict, instead of using the excuse of "well they’re all just irrational crazy terrorists," which is pretty much applied to both Israel and Palestine from the other side.

So, take some time to come up with positive intentions that those people that you are around may have, heck, even make up some, give people the benefit of the doubt. You won't lose that oh-so-precious pride of yours, and, if anything, I think you'll find that the understanding will help your relationships to improve.