I was thinking this morning – dangerous I know, but still, occasionally I do think. My thoughts raced spurred by the excellent article by Stephen Tanham that I reblogged below this one. The ridiculousness of the modern world in which everyone has a strong opinion about everything versus the reality that most everything is so complex, it cannot be readily understood at all. I also laughed to myself (yes, I do that too) thinking that in some ways, telling people I believe in faerie is less controversial than saying that climate change is a normal part of the processes taking place in our world and nothing to be overly concerned about.

You see as regards the latter statement, one is a simple belief for which I have no objective evidence at all but only subjective personal experience. The second is something for which, if you sat down and gave me the time and an open mind, I could objectively demonstrate to you utterly convincingly in a few hours.

Then based on some interaction I had that was delivered only with curiosity and respect by someone eager to learn and after I was slapped down in a rather offhand way, I thought to myself – why bother at all? Our ability to communicate is diminished by the lenses that we see things through. People believe things subjectively just like me and faeries without even being aware that they do. They interpret what you are trying to say through their lens often jumping defensively to an incorrect conclusion and focusing not on the substance of what was said but perhaps the periphery of it?

I don’t know but I do know this. Communication isn’t easy for all manner of reasons. And sometimes, I wonder if it is worthless anyway.

It reminded me of poor old Joe Biden who talking about science used gravity as an example of proven science. First, science is about hypotheses and second, if there is one area where science is at a loss its gravity.

Sums it up really. We have to dumb down reality to communicate but in doing so , we often miss the mark.