Assumptions? continued

Earlier I began to look at my budding understanding of the nature of our assumptions. Below I continue to bud without flowering. I continue in the expectation of sweet fruit.

I believe that I have an assumption of which I am unaware. I believe that I have adopted an assumption without realizing that I had done so. I suspect that you and I have assumptions that neither of us are aware of. I feel certain that you have an assumption that I am unaware of. How might the state of our knowledge of our assumptions effect our understanding? How might it effect the quality of our communication? I remember hearing one person say to another, "I don't get where you're coming from." I now understand the person was probably indicating that he didn't know the other person's assumptions and so could not put his opinions into perspective.

Even though I am pretty sure that there are assumptions of which I am unaware, the fact is that I am also pretty sure that I am well aware of many of my own assumptions and some of yours too. That awareness of assumptions helps(allows us)to communicate. The greater our awareness of each others awareness the better we can communicate. It also helps me when I am aware of my own assumption.

I remember my elders saying, "Define your terms." Defining terms doesn't exactly get a a person's assumptions, but it seems to be a move in that direction.

A friend of mine was having a relationship problem. In a discussion his significant other had several times said that she thought that he did not love her. Finally she said to him that he did not know what what love was. So, he asked her what she meant by love. Then she asked him what he meant by love. Their discussion about the meaning of 'love' lasted, on and off, for a couple of days. In those two days they came to understand and respect each other more that they ever had. It looked like love. They were lucky. Maybe they knew something about 'fair fighting.' I think that they probably uncovered an assumption or two.

An assumption is a bit like underwear.  Putting on your underwear may be called assuming your underwear. After you putting them on you usually give them little thought.  You probably don't typically spend much time thinking about the underwear of other people. Without thinking much about it, you might suppose that theirs is much like yours. That may, or may not, be the fact. You could be making an unconscious mistake. That mistake could lead to future difficulty. It is possible to make an unconscious assumption and then to act a though it were a fact.

You'd think that the world was complicated enough without assumptions. But aren't you glad that the cook from whom you order a cheeseburger doesn't assume that you want cheese ground up to look like burger?
His assumptions about the nature of a cheeseburger may not be exactly like yours, but they are often good enough. Thank goodness that we do clarify some of our assumptions