UNDERSTANDING

This is a great word that from my point of view means very little in terms of real life. Understanding is more than truth, it is actually KNOWING something and ACCEPTING it is real.

Which is the big problem. There are a lot of things that are real and true in life, but it doesn't mean we accept them, even if we know them.

See that is what we have to struggle with on many levels. Because we are basically selfish, prep-occupied little buggers of being who want what we want, when we want it. That is as plain and simple as I can make it from my point of view.

So that means the whole process of understanding takes longer than just doling out a spoonful of reality at a time. Some people refuse to swallow it!

How do we get around this problem? A hammer might work. You just sneak up behind a person and whack them in the head and the next thing you know, TA-DAH, you get results. Well, at least while the person is unconscious they won't be complaining or saying 'huh' too much.

Unfortunately, we do live in a civilized world, which means you have to tolerate a certain degree of communication that is other than direct and easy to express. Instead, we have to be clever. That is the polite way of saying, lying through our asses, but for a good reason.

Doesn't all this sound like fun? I'm not sure the fun part gets too real at times, but it does just the same become part of life in my opinion.

Now I suppose if people were different and we were not by nature lazy, dull minds of preoccupation, then shouting wouldn't be necessary. However, these days what with all the darn cell phones glued to people's ears you almost have to shout to get anyone's attention.

Thank goodness most of what we deal with in life is crap anyone. God knows how we would deal with a real life-threatening experience? Like say if you wanted to tell somebody that a meteor was headed straight for their head. I doubt seeing a crater in the ground with the person's shoes by the edge would qualify as understanding.

As a politician I have to wade through all this craziness and still try to have it make sense. I can't say it works all the time, but I do my best to keep my sanity, despite this nature of human behavior.

In any case I cover it most of the time with the joy of speeches. Nobody listens to them anyway. So if you play it right you talk about something in an understanding tone and then later when the person gripes because they weren't listening you just smile and give them the part of the speech where you can say I told you so. Yeah, it absurd, but so is life at times.