Intent Behind the Words

I read something a couple days ago.

Swami Sri Yukteswar:
"What a person imagines he hears, and what the speaker has really implied, may be poles apart. Try to feel the thoughts behind the confusion of men's verbiage."

This is a problem both with speaking and writing. Well, really with any communication. The speaker may say one thing, and maybe it doesn't come out quite right, or the listener is on a different track and doesn't grasp the full meaning of the communication.

It's inevitable. It will always happen, because people aren't perfect at communicating, or receiving communication. After all, we all have our own thoughts and experiences.
And usually it's harmless. Or you get a chance to say, "oh, not I didn't mean that. I was trying to say this."
Although sometimes people continue to insist that you mean something else, even when you're trying to tell them otherwise. Once a couple people kept insisting that I was acting passive aggressive when in reality I was super nervous. They wouldn't believe me. Of course I wasn't acting normal if I'm freaking out. But that does not mean I'm being passive aggressive. I've been passive aggressive before. I know what it feels like.
Maybe that's what they would have done if they were in my shoes. But I am not them.
It takes a hell of a lot to make me mad (mad enough that it sticks, anyway). But when I get there, I really get there.