Universes – Personal and Otherwise

My universe has many dimensions. Personal – home, bed, desk, recliner, kitchen, bathroom. Oh, of course the car and wherever it goes. Another dimension, work – colleagues, data systems used to communicate within related arenas, both information in and out, and of course collaborative activities. An external universe exists as well – community, region, state, nation and international community. The external universe is complicated because it is a context that informs the personal and work universes. We are not islands; none of us. Thus, our universes continually collide.

Germans have a word for this – gestalt. I ran across this word in a high school German class. It seemed to fit my mood perfectly. A teenager most likely aged 16. Physical changes well underway (read sexual awakening and all the hormonal angst that entails), as well as intellectual development that weighed a million data points smashing into my conscious mind. [By the way, angst is another German vocabulary word. It is properly pronounced aaahnngst, not angst that rhymes with hangst.]

Recalling the angst of my early teen years with gestalts colliding every which way, my blood pressure rises, the palms of my hands become damp, and automatic stressors reappear as of days long past. Sorting out the many signaling universes at the time was a major task. It launched my maturation big time. Same for you?

These three paragraphs illustrate the universality of our life experiences. Each of us confronted this reality back then continuing through today. It is a reason for diverse opinions on every topic known. My experience with a topic is incalculably affected by clashing universes in my personal, work and external consciousness. Your experience follows a similar process with understandably different outcomes of understanding reality. Same for every other human being on earth, past and present.

No wonder gaining agreement is so difficult. No wonder the legislative process is so lengthy and complicated. Again, no wonder so many have differing standards of happiness and sorrow, disappointment, you name it.

Weighing all of this as we attempt to communicate with different audiences is hard work. It is why so many avoid clear communication. It is also the reason legal contracts are so wordy! Of course, newscasts are complicated by this very same progression of thought and conclusions.

Why do I write about this today? Simple. We are confronted by daily communications that often confuse rather than edify. I hope we will all grow patience and discern messages carefully without jumping to conclusions. A speaker or author needs our cooperation to better understand the offered message. Weighing the relevance or importance of the message with our own universe takes time and savor.

Best we encourage others to do the same. We might just understand the universes better. And deal with them constructively.

December 20, 2021

 

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