About 4 or 5 years after our divorce my first wife called me to apologize.  Not for divorcing me, but for making assumptions about what I was doing during our marriage.  What she learned that led to the call was that what was in her mind about my motives and actions wasn’t necessarily true.  She was projecting her understanding of things onto my actions and my life.

She felt that that was not a good assumption to make.  She understood that It MIGHT be the case, but there shouldn’t be the assumption that it is. Assumptions build on top of assumptions, just as a house is built on a foundation.  If the original assumption isn’t solid, then the rest of the assumptions aren’t solid either.

Jealousy and many other responses can be like that.  Don’t let your judgment and understanding of yourself cloud your judgment and understanding of others.  See less of yourself in others and more of who they really are.  You might find out that your suspicions are valid, you might find out they are not.  But either way, you will see the truth, and that is better than seeing too much.

Oh, and no, the drawing is not my unwife and myself. She was not and is not an angry or mean-spirited person in any way.  I, meanwhile, am much more handsome and have several more hairs than the guy in the drawing.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

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One year ago today at the NDD – Passionate Hatred – including the animation I did of me drawing the actual napkin. Check it out!