Yesterday, I talked about experience. Today is a new day.
Although nobody's expected to understand everything, many of us stop there and don't put any effort into trying to understand. A misunderstanding that isn't looked into will never be understood. At the same time, not everything necessarily needs to be understood in order to appreciate and enjoy. I'm not fluent in Japanese, but despite the language barrier I can still enjoy a lot of Japanese music. dir en grey, for example, is a band that uses a lot of really difficult words in Japanese for their lyrics (it's quite poetic) and I don't understand a lot of them; but, that doesn't stop me from feeling the intense emotions being conveyed in their melodies.
In the same way, we don't always need to understand each other in order to like each other. The search for understanding and knowledge is something we're constantly looking for, yet no matter how much we try to understand someone (or ourselves) there's always something new to be discovered. I used to be told as a kid to not "talk to strangers", yet we all start out as strangers at some point, so what's the problem? Of course I get why such warnings are given, but it makes me wonder at what point do we know someone "enough" to really "know" them. Where do we draw the line between stranger and acquaintance and friend? Is such categorization even necessary to like someone?
I think that in order to really understand something we need let go of trying to understand it. In other words, trying to just take in what you can and be satisfied with what you've learned from the experience. Too often have I looked too deeply into things and have come out with more questions than I did answers. In the constant search for understanding we also fall into danger of seeing things that aren't there; interpretations based on false assumptions.
Learning to appreciate things as they are has helped me not make as many assumptions about things, but it's also been a great way for me to open up and really get to know people who I otherwise might have initially thought were rude. I've made some of my closest friends from giving people a chance and just being open to them. Rather than letting some bad first impressions get to me it's helped me keep in mind that we're all not perfect and that we all have bad days. In abandoning the search for a connection we end up making them. You don't have to look very far to find gold.
Peace
"Concert pianist Vladimir Horowits tells about the time he played a dissonant contemporary composition at a private gathering. When he finished, someone asked, 'I don't understand what that composition means, Mr. Horowitz. Could you please explain it?' Without a word, Horowitz played the composition again. When he finished he turned to his questioner and said, 'That's what it means.'"By nature we like to give meaning to things. It's how we sort them. Sorting things helps us process and interpret things more easily, however, we tend to do it unconsciously. When we can't understand or find the purpose/meaning in something it can be unsettling to us. It's the reason why some people don't like metal, hip-hop, or music in foreign languages. It's hard to relate to something we don't understand.
Although nobody's expected to understand everything, many of us stop there and don't put any effort into trying to understand. A misunderstanding that isn't looked into will never be understood. At the same time, not everything necessarily needs to be understood in order to appreciate and enjoy. I'm not fluent in Japanese, but despite the language barrier I can still enjoy a lot of Japanese music. dir en grey, for example, is a band that uses a lot of really difficult words in Japanese for their lyrics (it's quite poetic) and I don't understand a lot of them; but, that doesn't stop me from feeling the intense emotions being conveyed in their melodies.
In the same way, we don't always need to understand each other in order to like each other. The search for understanding and knowledge is something we're constantly looking for, yet no matter how much we try to understand someone (or ourselves) there's always something new to be discovered. I used to be told as a kid to not "talk to strangers", yet we all start out as strangers at some point, so what's the problem? Of course I get why such warnings are given, but it makes me wonder at what point do we know someone "enough" to really "know" them. Where do we draw the line between stranger and acquaintance and friend? Is such categorization even necessary to like someone?
I think that in order to really understand something we need let go of trying to understand it. In other words, trying to just take in what you can and be satisfied with what you've learned from the experience. Too often have I looked too deeply into things and have come out with more questions than I did answers. In the constant search for understanding we also fall into danger of seeing things that aren't there; interpretations based on false assumptions.
Learning to appreciate things as they are has helped me not make as many assumptions about things, but it's also been a great way for me to open up and really get to know people who I otherwise might have initially thought were rude. I've made some of my closest friends from giving people a chance and just being open to them. Rather than letting some bad first impressions get to me it's helped me keep in mind that we're all not perfect and that we all have bad days. In abandoning the search for a connection we end up making them. You don't have to look very far to find gold.
Peace
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| In the end we're all just searching for a connection. |
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