Flaws

There is something I think I need to be careful of.  Condemning something before I have heard the whole story.  This is particularly so if I have only heard one side.  If it is me telling the story of course I am right in my own eyes.  It seems to me a lot of gossip is built on the one telling the story seeing themselves as right.  Too often the one listening only agrees and opinions are based on incomplete information.
I always wondered why a portion of the costs were attributed to me when I fractured my spine when someone totally disobeyed a traffic rule and got me.  They knocked me off my motor bike.  They were in the wrong, but I did not get 100% of my insurance claim.
I could be wrong, but the thinking seemed to be, if I had not been there it would not have happened.  So although I may not have been to blame, a reason it impacted me in the first place is I was there.
That can seem unfair but it reminds me of life in general.  Dust inhabits our place.  We do not answer a knock at the door and invite it in.  It comes in anyway.  We need to deal with it (I know because I dusted once and it came back anyway.  I learned not to do it again from that).
When something is presented to me it may be 95% true or it could be 50% true.  If I base my decision only on one side, I am making an assumption it is 100% true.  It can only be after I have heard all sides of a matter that I can make an informed decision.  I may be as right as possible, but there will always be dust.
My decision may be in favour of the one who was 95% right, but it is made free of prejudice and misinformation.  That is particularly hard when there is a clamouring for something to go a certain way.  What I choose must be based on fact rather than opinion. My decision may go the way of the clamouring voices, but it will be based on evidence rather than hear-say.  It is what I would want for me, and it is what I will give others.
Merril just finished a book about someone held in the highest esteem.  The second last chapter dealt with flaws.  They were major flaws.  If emphasised they could have brought the person down and the world may have never known the benefit of the good that came of that person’s life.
That does not justify wrong, but it does show to me that no one of us has got it all together and why we need each other.  No-one is perfect.  We all have blind spots.  But if we are willing to listen honestly and change, we will get it right.
That does not change what can be done today through technology putting words in someone’s mouth they never said.  But for me what matters is that I can sleep at night.  I may be flawed but it seems to me being willing to honestly listen and change where I need to, is the best I can do.