Context

I've learned a lot in the sociology classes I've taken and one of the biggest concepts I've come across in the past year is the idea of considering 'context'. 

With every considerable human interaction, there is bound to be an introduction of a life story. Offering bits and pieces of one's own background serves to better the understanding of the way they are or the way they live presently. So here lies two problems as I see it: (1)failing to consider another's context and (2)neglecting to communicate one's context. From my experiences, I've come across the former more than the latter. 

Let's put this into perspective: 

[Picture retrieved from: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/49891508342420572/]

Say, you have tattoos and piercings. Say you also have two parents that absolutely forbid their children to ever "mutilate" themselves with tattoos and piercings. There can be many reasons for this; they may have grown up in an area wherein tattoos and piercings are associated with a generalized population of hood-rats and criminals and gangsters, etc. On the other hand, there can be many reasons why you'd want tattoos and piercings for yourself. See, you were placed in a context in which you developed a desire for a particular image. Whatever the reason, your want is valid - while at the same time, your parents' judgement is valid. Both are validated by context.

And, okay, this ^ seems petty and passive-aggressive of me. So let's jump to a bigger scale: 

There's something I haven't been able to stop thinking about. So I have this friend that consistently suggests that the things I do are "not normal". And by that, I've come to learn, she means "not what I am used to". I've heard her say, on multiple occasions, "I have never seen/heard of that before". I feel that it's interesting for her to use the labels "normal" vs "not normal" - which suggests that whatever she is not used to is wrong. That different translates to incorrect. I have to mention that a lot of this criticism was directed toward cultural aspects of my lifestyle. I've had to laugh my way through a lot of these moments, but I'm not sure where comedic relief stops resolving this subtle kind of racism - the same way I'm not sure if I'm making a bigger deal out of it than I actually should be. All I know is that she comes from a different context...

In the grand scheme of things, I'm finding that the biggest source of conflict is that between people of opposing contexts. Mutual understanding of the others' context is the key to any kind of solution. I'm only trying to learn how to apply this to absolutely everyone I come across from now on.