Misunderstandings
Misunderstandings can be quite tough – whether if it’s a mistake made by you or someone else, more often than not it results in an inconvenience in life to various extents. These things truly indicate how crucial clear and strong communication can be: a wrong move overlooked or unnoticed could result in disaster down the line.
The Project
Such was the case last December: in preparing my personal project (which was a short film), a large cast & crew were needed consisting of a lot of people. One of the biggest misunderstandings that pretty much gave me a heart attack was the dropping out of an essential member: the costume designer. I had been the one with the knowledge of all the roles of the crew members on set, and in general, the costume designer’s job really is a combination of designing the costume and constructing it from realistic pieces of clothing into a customized wardrobe. For her, however, the job was nothing more than designing and sketching out the costumes. When she realized the work that was needed to be done in the amount of time she had left, she probably had to drop out, which, to be fair, she had her IB Exams and the workload wasn’t easy. However, I just can’t help but think if it would’ve been possible that, had we communicated more clearly, could everything have gone more smoothly.
This pretty much resulted in my needing to construct a wardrobe together within the span of a week or two, and needless to say, the pressure was extremely high. Something that I just can’t help but relate to this event would have to be from Rebecca Skloot’s book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Deborah Lacks’ anxiety as a result of miscommunication and misinformation by scientists & press.
“When Deborah got to her doctor’s office, he blood pressure and blood sugar were so high, her doctor was amazed she hadn’t had a stroke or heart attack while we were in clover. (297)”
The Misunderstood Life of Henrietta Lacks
For years, the events surrounding the HeLa cells had not only made the Lacks family terrified of cancer but also wary of the reporters & researchers. As a result of many of the people’s arrogance to share information, anxiety, and nervousness was conjured up. All this could’ve been resolved at an attempt to clarify and ensure understanding by both sides of the situation, which sadly didn’t happen until much later.
“”So we don’t have the thing that made her cells grow forever?” Deborah asked. Christoph shook his head. “Now you tell me after all these years!” (265)”
If anything, the paranoia of the time has only proven this to be true: the public was afraid of the scientists and the governments’ actions all because of secrecy and the withholding of information. This only muddled up the understanding for many people and subsequently created much nervousness, which could’ve been averted had there been less misunderstanding and stronger communication.
“He volunteered for research on alcoholism to pay for a new job-training program, then signed up for an AIDS study that would have let him sleep in a bed for nearly a week. He quit when the researchers started talking about injections, because he thought they’d infect him with AIDS. (208)”
Bibliography:
- Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Broadway Books, 2010. Print.