INTERPRETATION

The other day I made a plan with a friend to go to a movie. I can't remember exactly what we said, but he went to the theatre and I went to his place. There he is standing in front of the theater, eventually fuming and finally going in. Here I am, instantly understanding the miscommunication, leaping in my car and of course too late for the beginning of the show. I went inside anyway and afterwards we met up in the lobby. 
     This kind of misunderstanding has happened more than once. It isn't due to not hearing right; it's because two people, hearing the same thing, can have two different interpretations of what was actually said. Sometimes I think it's a miracle that we understand one another as well as we do.
     Here's something related: when I say "chair" I don't have to actually visualize a chair because the concept of "chair" is so embedded in my mind. If pressed, I come with the image of kitchen chair, painted white. I don't know why that's my particular archetype of "chair" but that image has put down tracks in my brain and probably will never disappear.
      When you say "chair," chances are your archetypal chair is different than mine. If pressed you may see a plush down chair, a pool chair, or one designed by Gustav Stickley. Who can why you have that connotation? But no matter what I see and you see, we both have the general concept of chair and can understand each other.
     We each have our own private interpretations, filtered through our own consciousness.  We interpret everything that comes to our senses as symbols; everything is filtered through our own consciousness. I can't touch a "word" but if I see w-o-r-d, I know what it symbolizes. The same is true of everything in our world. We understand it in accordance with our assumptions and opinions, the received knowledge of our culture, our own experience and temperament and all the resonances and connotations we've formed in the course of our lives. All of that gives a sense of internal continuity; it's everything we mean when we say "I."
    This may sound abstract but in fact it's the most stunning aspect of human consciousness.The world we receive isn't set in stone; it's what we make of it. Because it is we who invest the world with meaning we can over time change those meaning. We are free to revise opinions, gain new insight, come to a new perspective. We can change our minds.  We can imagine more than one reality, and form an opinion of our choices.  We understand the power of "should" and how it's at the heart of what we call our conscience.  We can give ourselves over to certain abstract symbols in which we invest the deepest meaning, ideas like honor and morality and sometimes we're prepared to give our lives for them. 
     This is how it is for all of us, and it's how it is for me. No matter how far down the trail of depression I go, or how much self-loathing I latch onto in any given day, I know I have the possibility of turning that reality into a completely different one. Experience has taught me if I find a way to turn my focus just the slightest bit the world will look very different, filled with new possibilities. No matter what my circumstances or how difficult the outside world is or how mired I am in all the things I'm often mired in, I can find a new perspective. Just knowing that is comforting. And even more - it's the ultimate freedom.