There is an old cliche in Christian culture that the devil's
greatest trick is convincing us that he doesn't exist.
Sometimes I wonder if the inverse is just as true - ie -
the church's greatest trick is convincing us that god does.
I don't know if either one is true, and it couldn't matter
less, because (a) in the absence of such Absolute knowledge,
I just try to live in ways that help - or at least don't hurt -
other people and (b) even if I did know The Truth,
nobody would believe me anyway.
And anyway, I think there is another trickster among
us whose impact is just as profound who attracts much
less attention... words.
Words are really tricky.
They are tricky because we each and all assume we know
what they mean. On a personal level, this is probably
inevitable and maybe even benign.
Where it gets tricky, to the point of dangerous, is when
we assume that what a word means to us is what it
means to the person we're talking to...
***
A simple example would be "blue".
When I say "blue", I think of a dark shade called Navy Blue
that was probably imprinted by a set of Laurentien pencil
crayons when I was very young.
You may have thought of the colour of the sky,
or the sea, or a pair of pants or a berry on a bush.
You might even think of that same pencil crayon,
but the odds are you didn't...
yet that's what I meant.
***
Who cares.
Most of the time, none of us- including me. It's so obvious,
we're so busy, so use an adjective or two, blah, blah blah...
The only reason it's on my mind right now is because I was
reading up on some aspect or other of "bipolar"and once
again saw it described as a "Mood Disorder".
I had one of those strange moments where it was like
I was seeing this term for the first time, and it made me
go "Hmmmm....".
It reminded me of this graphic that I did recently:
Everyone has moods. Good moods, bad moods...
you don't have to be polarity-gifted to be in one mood
or another, or even to be called "moody".
The difference, when you are bipolar, is profound.
You don't have a mood- the mood has you.
You can't just think a happy thought or eat a Snickers bar
or have a coffee and move on.
That feeling of depression is not something you can
just shake off, or think your way out of. Even if you can
convince yourself to pull up your socks, it's not going to
change a damn thing*.
If you've experienced this, you know what I mean.
If you haven't experienced it, (a) you are soooo lucky
and (b) "depression", like "blue" is something we don't
share an understanding of, and we never really will.
*yes, there are things you can do that may alleviate
or even dispel that "mood" for a day or a week or whatever,
but it's always out there...
.
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