My day as Dr. John Dorian

I recently got into an argument with my girlfriend. I won't go into particulars, but I will say it got me pretty upset. I stewed about it for a full day and spent half of the day continuing to argue with her in my head and going over the whole argument again and again in detail, the other half. My inner monologue can be very destructive at times and very therapeutic at others.

During the argument I was convinced I didn’t do anything out of line and she was blowing things out of proportion for what seemed the 5,238 time. As I argued with her in my head the next day, I grew even more convinced that I was right and I'm not the one who should change. She just doesn’t understand me the way I thought she did and is never going to.

About halfway through the day, for some reason I decided to take a look at things from her perspective. Sure, some things were misunderstood, but others, when looked at from the other side, were very valid points. This change in perspective made me realize that she doesn’t always blow things out of proportion, and sometimes I do. It made me realized I haven’t been making strides in the relationship that she has. It made me realize that she isn’t as hard to understand as I thought. I get it! I just need to take a look at the context in which she views the situation. When I look at things she is upset about from my perspective, of course she's a wackjob! How can I be wrong? But when I can flip it around and see what she is seeing and understand why she see's it that way, I know she's so upset because she loves me and she knows bringing it up will only make me a better person, even though I may not think so right away.

I have known, since I began to claim to know things, that men and women view similar things in very different ways. I don’t think I have ever applied this logic to my own situation though. It's amazing what your inner monologue will teach you, if you just let yourself listen. It's even more amazing what someone else can teach you, if you just let yourself see their side.

Song of the day...I'm No Superman by Lazlo Bane