This brings us to the mediation that words bring through concepts such as love, or understanding. I've been trying to figure out what it means to understand someone, or to understand anything. I have felt that I understand someone before, and I pick the word, "Understand" to that feeling, but how did I decide that word matches up with that feeling? What conditioing brought about that kind of understanding? (See, there it is again.)
And now to prove Gabe's point further that all I talk about is love: The concept of love is something that even more people struggle with, hopefully something we all question at some point. (Like the song is, we should all ask oursevles at least once, "What is love?" ) I'm not even going to attempt to tackle what love is. Though I have my views on it, and while I do believe I could be understood, (Whatever that means) it's an understanding that would develop over time. If I were to ever say I love you, (in any sense of the word. Anyone out there we need more words for the concept of all the different kinds of love? Eskimos have 50 words in their language for snow because it's everywhere. I think our lack of having words for love prove we don't have enough of it in our culture. =( ) I would hope you would understand because we would have built up some sort of previous connection. You would understand what it meant for me, myself, to love another human being but only through the feeling itself. (If that makes any sense. It's 12:20 in the morning. I should probably be sleeping.)
Love, understanding. I believe these feelings are something that are better off not mediated through words. (Not that they shouldn't be debated, that can bring people to a closer understanding.) When I tell someone I love them, it is saying many things at once. (And I mean love in any sense word. A love between a parent and child, a love between friends, lovers, etc.) Many feelings that have no word attached to them. It's a short cut, in a way. There is no possible way for me to convey every feeling I feel for a person when I love them through words, so I just use the short cut and hope they understand. But mostly, I would hope that the word would just help the connection we were were feeling, and would not cause the feeling. The connection of love would already be established, the word love would just help make that connection stronger.
With understanding, is understanding the same as empathy to another person? If I understand your feelings, have I been in simlar place that you've been in before? Do I understand your intentions? Or do I simply understand the feeling that you are feeling right now?
Back to empathy. True understanding (ding) of a feeling is something not that is not felt through words, it is felt through a connection. But at the same time, I see contradictions. Can it be possible to feel the exact same way that another person feels at the same time? Is the feeling truly the same? Can a person simply just know when the feeling is the same?
A lot of these concepts of mediation through words can also used for religon. The core feeling of all religons is essientially the same. Buddism, Taoism, Christainity, Judiasm, Transcendenalism, were all made to come closer to "god." The main character of Life of Pi, Pi, said that there are many pathways one can take to get the top of a mountain. All paths are paths, and none of them have to be the "right" one.
This sums it better than I could:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyTOIHhFla8
And just because I like to make fun of my own obsessi--I mean, fascination of what I call the "the philosophy of feelings":
