Most of us on this web site come from a western heritage (I'm not excluding an eastern or other heritage - I simply don't know enough about it. You know - for a western heritage I only need to look deep inside myself..). A western heritage implies many things but what is relevant to my thoughts now is our philosophic heritage that started around late Renaissance with Mersenne and Descartes. It is the time when it became so important to strip anything and everything of meaning other than the meaning assigned to it by logic. By straight definition - in words of course. It is referred to as the big words like Truth and Honour. Slowly, slowly their real meaning was eroded until it became little more than entries in a dictionary. This process goes (or went) hand in hand with ethe need to xplain everything. To explain something you have to strip it of that very difficult, soft, sometimes dichotomous or contradictory underlying ideas, the mystical, the part that engages our imagination, that allows us to dream .. No it has to be clear and exact and under control. Crispy clear, dry and dead.
Understanding on the other hand engages part of our being that is not involved in logic. Understanding is what our being needs to accomplish before life makes any sense. Understanding is what unites disparate emotions and ideas. Dreams offer understanding. Understanding is the vehicle of a successful relationship not only to the partner in our lives but our friends and colleagues and ultimately life itself. Understanding can offer a notion of sense and purpose in our being here ..
