Understanding - Life 101 Lecture

What better a night to write about understanding than on a night after a whole day that matter utter and complete nonsense.

So now, What say we begin with a definition.

Understanding - a state of cooperative or mutually tolerant relations between people or ideas.

Understanding is the ability to objectively relate things that exist in the outside world into your own consciousness, allowing said things to be comprehended in such a fashion that you have the most correct emotional or mental response to it. There must exist a level of tolerance within your own judgment sphere to be able to accept that something is the way it is, or at least enough to let the actuality of something which is foreign to you be something you can recognize as a part of this great grand cosmos.

Basically, you understand things which you can accept, even if you have an aversion, affinity, or anything on the scale within to item in question.

To understand a man* is to know him. To know a person is to interact with them on some scale that evokes a personal response from your true self. When you interact with something that gives you either a positive or negative reaction you learn about that thing as well as yourself. So just as you taste a food that you wanna spit out, sometimes we begin to learn one another from bad tastes. Even in this way, we can learn to understand something, even if it makes up wanna ring its neck. but the opposite is also true. When something gives us a positive reaction, we can learn about it. Every interaction teaches us something, about people, about the limitations of things, and the abilities that bound around us on all sides. With a greater understanding we have the power to act more appropriately in the world around us.

When the world first brings us something which we do not know, we have to interact with it in some capacity to really learn how best to deal with it, work with it, or help or harm it. Just as you have to spend time with your pets in order to learn their likes or dislikes, you must spend some time with people when they can be themselves to really get to know them. This is why people need to go out with their coworkers, friends, and family. We as people are always learning and changing. If we turn ourselves away from the process of cooperation we limit our chances of growing. As we slow ourselves from what comes naturally to our brains, we put ourselves into a state of stasis which, left unchecked, could lead to hermitism, sorrow and loss, not to mention depression or the lack of inspiration to keep moving forward.

I can see how growing up in my generation would actually help people achieve this
darkened state faster and easier than others. When you take a whole group of people and place them on medication which chemically removes them from the parts of their lives which need to be utilized for understanding (merely based on the incorrect assumption that these children are hyperactive instead on the correct assumption that these children can learn more than a little in a 3 second chuck of time and want nothing more than new input) they become hindered to the learning process. When you are told as a child that they way you are is wrong and this little pill will fix it, well, how exactly do you allow these children to grow into adult who do little more than sit back waiting for someone else to do it, because, frankly, they aren't fit to do so. This is not my belief, but what I have come to assume from years of living inside and outside the box. You tell a child that wanting to go outside and play is wrong, then you sue mcdonalds for your kid getting fat. seriously... Think about it.

So there are all these kids (and i use the term kids since they are having lots of trouble growing up, due t their lack of a childhood) in their early to older twenties who think they are worth little more than being a cog in a machine. Good way to repay the children you, society, taught to follow their dreams. These young adults learned in their youth that dreams were to be chased and achieved, then turn around and smack them with the debts of a political system that didn't prepare for a more stable future. They begin to speak out and are always shunned or turned away. It's become so commonplace, that people are turning away from one another due to the fact that they will never be good enough, worth enough, or even important. So they fill up cyberspace with blogs about ideas, dreams, poetry, and everyday frustrations, only to be responded with a negation of their own very personal feelings. So not only are we not smart enough to think, but not real enough to feel. Experiences become limited and learning comes to a standstill.
So even if people are trying to understand one another, they limit their expression, causing confusion which leads to a lethargy to even try. it begins to cause productivity for singular individuals, groups, or shared projects to linger.

As long as we aren't gaining anything from interaction, we cannot grow personally. situations always become tiresome or too full of drama to take anything away from but a lasting feeing of dissatisfaction. relationships crumble and people try to separate themselves from anything, even themselves. Then you start hearing things about "I don't wanna be me anymore." and a wave of malaise settles over people, hindering anything which must be done.

The best way to learn to understand, is to directly and honestly interact with one another. Speak your mind and it will free you. If you can speak freely to one another they will understand that they can too speak freely, and the doors of communication are thrown wide open. Regular communication is the best way to learn any one thing from another person. Yeah, direct questioning works as well, but if you hadn't noticed in yourself, something which you think or feel, isn't always held in stone. So asking someone how they feel on one particular day might not be their real truth. If one day your car fails to start, and you go around grumbling about it, people might think you hate your car. But somewhere in your recollection is a memory of some fantastic situation you had in your car, a kiss, some sex, winning the lottery, taking in a movie or concert, or possibly just sitting and smoking/drinking relaxing from the hectic day before. You don't hate your car, you just got upset. Just as when your siblings make you wanna slit their throats or run away, in reality you do love them. This i believe is the first step in understanding. Knowing that no matter how many lemons life throws at you, you can always make more than lemonade. lemon square, citrus tea, orange chicken, zest, or a myriad of alcoholic drinks.

Life is simple, but that doesn't automatically mean it is easy. The only way to make life easier is to have a basis of understanding to pull from. The more you know the easier the process of battle can be. You learn how to begin or react when you start with a basic knowledge of any particular task. Then its a a series of trials and errors until the knowledge base grows. the more you know the easier it is to figure out the best plan of action to achieve what it is you are trying to. When everything is bugging you to the point that you can't figure out why the world is getting down on you, it is a good idea to take a step back and look over all the information you have gathered. Then you might begin to accept that the guy who is saying and doing all the wrong things is just trying to figure out the only way he can relate to you. Once that can be settled then the mishaps in commentary wont be so insulting. The bridges of interpersonal communication can open up and a small understanding starts to form. It only grows with each new piece of information. In time, everything begins to blossom like a flower. Understanding is something that begins small and only gets larger with every new piece of information that you can take in. They say knowledge is power, and they are right. The more you know the better you can do to work within the world. Escapism becomes less of a desire while you find yourself enjoying everything more. Accepting people as they are is the first step to finding joy in your life. Acceptance is easier with understanding. and understanding comes with knowledge. knowledge comes from the process of interacting with one another. Simple eh?

But perhaps not so easy. When you can't accept yourself you are less likely to be open. The less often you are honest about yourself, the more people don't understand. And the less they understand, the less accepting they are. A vicious cycle begins with doubt and ends with frustration. So what can we do?

An honest look at yourself should show that you yourself might not be the best of all there is. If you can see that, perhaps, others feel as small and inconsequential as you are, then perhaps it is easier to let them be their lovable eclectic selves. Assuring others the opportunity to be a little off-tilt will let you see that idiosyncrasies are a result of experience. Your own might make you feel inferior, but when you see others expressing their own you should be able to see that you aren't alone in your feelings of inadequacy. There are parts of all of us that are imperfect. But when you can see that you aren't the only one who is not perfect, it should give you some hope that your specific talent isn't wasted. That your life has some meaning, and that people aren't inherently bad. Perhaps they are sometimes difficult. This doesn't mean that we are broken or that they are wrong, it just shows in how many ways we are different from one another. And differences are the spice of life.

Yes, we are all special. In this case, I do not mean retarded. But in someways we are all a little retarded. that is what makes out strengths so beautiful. And in essence we are all beautiful creatures. So don't be afraid to show your uniqueness, it might just give someone a better understanding of how life works.

*Man in this case, means fellow earth bound peoples, places or things