September 16, 2025
Some days, the world feels like one giant misunderstanding. Your kid is crying because you cut their sandwich into squares instead of triangles. A driver honks because they thought you cut them off when you were really just avoiding a pothole. A text message lands wrong because the other person read it with the wrong tone in their head. Misunderstandings are the background noise of modern life.
But here’s the Thought of the Day that I’ve been chewing on: It’s our job to understand.
That doesn’t mean we’ll always get it right, or that every situation is worth dissecting like a frog in high school biology. But it does mean that we can’t throw up our hands and say, “Well, people are just impossible.” That’s the easy way out. And honestly, it’s the lazy way out too.
What understanding requires
Understanding is more than hearing words. It’s about context, tone, and intention. Think of it like watching a movie on mute, you can follow the action, but you’re missing the meaning.
In my own life, the moments I regret most aren’t usually when I didn’t say the right thing, but when I didn’t understand the other person. My kids don’t always need advice, they need me to get why they’re frustrated. My wife doesn’t always want a solution, she wants me to really hear the problem. Even at work, nine times out of ten, conflict boils down to someone feeling like they weren’t understood.
And yet, here’s the paradox: understanding is slow. In a world where we prize speed, fast food, instant messages, same-day delivery, understanding feels like a roadblock. Who has time to pause and say, “Tell me more”?
But maybe that’s the whole point. Maybe understanding is valuable precisely because it doesn’t fit into our microwave culture.
The cost of not understanding
Here’s the danger: when we don’t take the time to understand, we fill in the blanks ourselves. And we’re terrible at it. We assume the worst. We write little mental stories about people: “She didn’t respond because she’s ignoring me.” “He cut me off because he’s a jerk.” “They’re upset because they’re unreasonable.”
And then the stories calcify into truth in our heads. Suddenly, what could have been cleared up with one more question or thirty more seconds of listening turns into bitterness.
I’ve been on both sides of this. I’ve been misunderstood in ways that made me want to shout, “That’s not what I meant!” And I’ve misunderstood others so badly that I look back now and cringe.
The better way forward
So what does “It’s our job to understand” actually look like in practice?
- Ask one more question. Instead of assuming, dig just a little deeper. “What did you mean by that?” goes a long way.
- Pause before reacting. Not every sentence needs an instant response. Sometimes the best thing you can do is breathe before answering.
- Listen like you’re wrong. Not because you are, but because it opens the door to being surprised by someone else’s perspective.
Understanding is a discipline. You won’t always get it right, but making the effort changes you, and it changes the people around you too.
And maybe this is why today’s Question of the Day (about replacing your car horn with a ridiculous sound) connects so well. Our “horns” in life, the ways we signal, respond, or react, can either shut people down or invite them in. A blaring horn says, “Get out of my way.” A duck quack says, “Hey, maybe let’s laugh about this.” Understanding always chooses the duck.
🧠 Read the full blog post where I explore this Thought of the Day and the Question of the Day
✨ Browse the full Thought of the Day archive here →
✉️ Receive These Thoughts Daily
Start each day with a moment of meaning.
Sign up for the daily email.
💬 Share Your Interpretation
How does this thought hit you today?
Feel free to share it or just carry it quietly through your day.