Response vs. Reaction

Was going through my portable hard disk and found this article I wrote on Christmas of 2013, my first Christmas in the USA, but must have never published it.

Here it goes!

Am writing an article after a long time on a topic a friend suggested me to.  At least I hope she remains one after reading this.

As per a rough definition of the above words, Response is something which you give after logically assessing the question/ statement. It is a decision not taken in haste and is correct choice in most of the cases. Reaction on the other hand, is as you may know, the opposite of action. You may also state it as the antithesis of Action.

The question which comes to my mind is which one is better? And if there is no clear winner, what conditions determine the option to take?

As my very dear friend stated, reaction occurs in those cases when you are either surprised/shocked at the news you hear. A surprise or shock may occur if the news is devastating or it comes from a source you don’t regard highly.

A response, on the other hand, being logical, can come only if, you trust the source as well as expect some news with a severity level of the news that you get.

A reaction has several degrees of severity, from the mildest ‘ah’ to the strongest ‘Thwack!’ or ‘Get lost!’

The problem is not in the selection of the response/reaction. It is when the expectation of the news giver has a mismatch with the response of the news reader.

Say for e.g.  When Barney Stinson proposed to Robin Scherbatsky (pardon the spelling), Barney expected a response, but she chose to react. On the other hand, when I expected a reaction on communicating my thoughts, my friend reading this gave a cool and calculated response.

What happens after this mismatch concerns with the reach of the news. In a personal situation however, the reach doesn’t matter. What matters is the disappointment over the expectations not matching the reaction.

To avoid being disappointed, I suggest the news bearers to go ahead sans any expectations, since any reaction/response would then be welcome.

To myself, I suggest the length of the article is enough to get the point across.

To the reader of this article, I expect and hope you not to share this. However, I cannot control it if you do.

As per the exact question regarding whether the response was correct or not, I just have one thing to say.

The proverb says ‘Do unto others what others do unto you’.

A twist on it says ‘Do unto others what others wish to do unto them’.

It means that react to a person in a manner they expect you to react to it.