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Sunday, June 18, 2006

Disappointment

Disappointment:
n 1) a feeling of dissatisfaction that results when your expectations are not realized; 2) an act (or failure to act) that disappoints someone.
After having a conversation with a friend this weekend, I realized that I was disappointed without even realizing that I had expectations. It gave me pause. In order to be disappointed, one must have expectations. Was I really disappointed in the actions of my friend or was I disappointed in my expectations? Then I wondered: was I disappointed that my expectations for this person were too low or too high? To me, the expectations of acceptable behavior for this person were fairly low, or at least I had thought they were low. But now I think perhaps they might have been too high in the situation. Who am I to say what is acceptable behavior. Just because I abhor certain behavior doesn't necessarily mean that a behavior isn't right for others. Perhaps I shouldn't be holding people up to the same level of standards as I have. Hmm. Something to think about. Hopefully I hid my disappointment well.

1 comment:

JAJ said...

It's hard to hold those we love to lower standards than we ourselves hold. It feels like our values should rub off and they should understand as we do . . . but life doesn't always work as if "should", does it?

-Alison