Bigger fool "suffering no lesser fools"

Our preconceived ideas about a person often block our objectivity and we view his/her actions and words with a filter, tainting their true meaning. But my question is how much chance do we give the person before we find ourselves back to wearing the same filter ?

I had an exchange with someone yesterday and bull dozed my way insisting I was right. In my opinion this person always views the world through a narrow frame. Later on when skyping with my daughter I brought up the same topic but did not let her know that I had cross words with another person on this subject. When my daughter cautioned my approach on the topic as not totally sound I was all ears, listening intently on her counter argument and reasoning. (One thing I am secretly proud of is my children's more in-depth analytical ability than mine maybe because they are more well read). After hearing her I realized I didn't even give that person a chance to develop his argument. Now I wished I had not cut him short and had let him develop his case. Now I find myself curious to know where he is coming from and wanting to hear yet another opinion about this topic which I was so confident of. I guess I need to swallow my pride to approach him.

With this episode I start to wonder why I often lack the patience to hear people out, especially those whom I have branded as "clueless". How ah? How to correct this type of arrogance and "suffer no fools" attitude? Does it require many encounters of discovering I am actually the bigger fool "suffering no lesser fools" to correct this behaviour? OK at least I am aware of my shortcoming which may be a good start. Patience is another virtue I need to develop. I have to constantly remind myself that golden words do follow ramblings. If golden words are not forthcoming I then have to check whether I was listening correctly with an unfiltered mind. Lastly if ramblings continue I perhaps have to psycho myself "Better luck next time!"

Oh but how many next times? (still the arrogance...sigh)

(Oh what a co-incidence! It was April's fool day yesterday!)