People see others within the context of their own references and experience. We all of us tend to quite quickly put others into boxes in terms of what type of person we think they are. The box types themselves are of course determined by the confines of our own mind-sets.

A person with a broad sensibility faced with another less complex will fairly easily get the picture. The opposite is not so likely to be the case. A narrow minded type with little insight faced with a sophisticated person will be clueless. This of course will not deter him as he will just box that person anyway consistent with his limited outlook. There is not much chance of a two-way understanding in this kind of association.

The upshot of this for me being a rather complex individual is to feel constantly misunderstood. I can often get a hold on where someone else is at but the reverse is rarely true. What makes it worse is that I am usually aware of which box I have just been carelessly stuffed into and in the worst cases sometimes even play out this false role for the sake of making a connection. Needless to say I don’t like this state of affairs.