i'm just a soul whose intentions are good.

"Do you think of yourself as misunderstood?"

I had to sit back and think about it. I'm not sure why sitting back was necessary, as if thinking hard about something required you to use as few muscles as possible. But I'd never considered the question before, despite having sung "Oh, Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood!" at the top of my lungs.

I have felt misunderstood on an individual basis. Sometimes I feel that way on this blog, where I write a post and someone takes one line and runs with it, leaving me scratching my head and wondering if I'd been unclear about my point. And sometimes I make a joke, which people don't understand is a joke. Then there's the completely opposite situation where I'm being genuine and someone thinks I'm being a smart-aleck, having been burned by the previous situation before.

But no, I don't feel misunderstood. There are people who get me, and there are people who don't. The second group seems to have more members, and so when I find someone in the first group, I get very excited. Here is a kindred spirit. At last, I can be myself and say things that are too dorky or too silly or two obscure or too whatever for other people. And when I'm around the other kind of people, I definitely feel toned down. I'm Sandra Lite. By figuring out which group a person belongs to, I cut down on feeling misunderstood.

To recap: I've just written that I don't feel misunderstood, yet I think that the majority of people that I meet don't get me. I don't want to say that I feel misunderstood, because it strikes me as sort of a cliched excuse for having no friends or getting fired or not being able to get your book published. It's downright teenagery. In fact, I used to wonder whether that song about being misunderstood was ironic. I've looked up the lyrics, and I don't think it is, though there is potential for a great cover version.

But as far as feeling like most people don't get the real me, I assume that everyone feels this way. Maybe I'm wrong, and that feeling is just a part of being introverted or liking math or having big feet. In any case, it's just something else to deal with. Some people get me and some people don't. So it goes.