projecting from their own dark psyches....

Projecting from their own dark psyches....

I found the above phrase buried in an article about the mosque at Ground Zero.

This phrase intrigued me...."projecting from their own dark psyches."

And it kind of goes along with a post that has been churning around in my thoughts for a while now.  A post about forming opinions, based on assumptions....without truly knowing the whole story or all of the facts.  And I have a good example. 

I've mentioned here before that Emily often babysits for the two year old (hearing impaired but smart as a whip) daughter of a young single mom she's known since we moved here 10 or so years ago.  She does it out of the goodness of her heart and her love for children.  She does it to help her friend.  She usually does it for free.  She often takes Kaya to Sunday School, to Youth Group....to run Beth to work in Muncy...to WalMart....to a friend's house....to Dunkin' Donuts.  She straps Kaya's pink carseat in the old brown van, throws her stroller in the back.... and off they go...where ever Emily needs to go.  Kaya along for the ride. 

So, in their travels the other day, Emily stopped to get gas...with Kaya....who was in her pink car seat...fussing and carrying on.  She was fussing because it was very hot and the van doesn't have air conditioning....and she was fussing because ......well, because sometimes two year olds fuss and carry on.  The pump malfunctioned....and Em was in the process of getting Kaya out of the carseat to take her in the store to figure out why it pumped $36 worth of gas when she only prepaid for $12.  That's when a well dressed man in a suit...driving an SUV hollered at her.

"You're in my way."

"Why don't you just turn the f#@*ing air conditioning on"

and then the kicker.....

"If you hadn't had a f#@*ing kid so young, you might know more."

Appearances can indeed be deceiving.  A teenage girl....a beat up van....a crying two year old.  Yep...it was a cut and dried case.  But his assumptions were way off.  He was missing vital information.  He was projecting from his own dark psyche.  He was misinformed.  He didn't know the whole story.

 I wonder if there is any of that going on in the mosque dispute. Could there be missing information and false assumptions on both sides of the issue?

A side note.  The clerk in the store told Emily they had a new register system and had been having problems with it all day and there was no charge for the extra gas.  She was absolutely thrilled.... 

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