Do I misunderstand you constantly? Do we think we know each other when really, we each know something--someone?-- that we created from what we perceived to be each other's intended meaning? Weird to think that I might see the same body where you exist, but instead of you in there, I see my manifestation of you. Are we having two separate conversations when we talk together?
My perception of who you really are is constantly changing. I have hypothesized to fill in the blanks about you from the first time I met you. When you act, all I know about your action is my perception--my educated guess--of what your intention is. I weave you together, piece you, roughly. I use what I know of you to predict your next behavior, and to intuit the semantics of the behavior, that is, what you intended by it. Each interaction we have either backs up my hypothesis or breaks it. Turns it into something to mull over, something to remember for later. I learn something new about you pretty often, and every time I do, it changes who I know you to be--the myriad of you. I either have more confidence in who I believe you to be, or I have less. I say this to each one of you who I know.
Even you, who I've known for so long.
Even you, who I've known for my entire life.
My perceptions of you give you meaning for me. Your perceptions of me give me meaning for you. If I had no perceptions of you, I wouldn't have you at all.
Are our perceptions of others' intentions a reflection of our internal view of reality? After all, when I perceive, I reach into the depths of what I have experienced, I think of similar examples, I do the best that I can do, and I decide what it means. How many variations are there of the expression, "That's not why I did it, you only thought so because that's why you would do it".
If this is a worthy idea about of meaning and communication and relationships, is it discouraging?
Lately, these changes in who I believe you to be, the aggregate sum of changes in all of you has been...positive. I empathize more with you. I believe in you. I am starting to trust you. I have a feeling that you are not different. I have a feeling that what I choose to see is different.
I believe the change in who I believe you to be comes from a change that has occured in me.