When I was younger I often thought that communication meant what, “I said,” to someone. As I have gotten older I have realized it’s more about how the other person has heard or in most cases felt the message I tried to convey. In my mind when I share a story or thought with someone I imagine my story going in their ear and running over the complex machinery of their lives and coming out totally different than the way I intended it. Sometimes it lands more beautifully than I intend and sometime more ugly. The reception of that idea often comes down to how well I know that person, but not always.
It is for this reason that I love the study of symbology. Moreover, I think, I love the mechanics of how it works differently in all of us depending on the spectacularly varied intellectual luggage that we all carry. Like all forms of communication it is up to the interpreter and not the sender to understand the message. The crux of it is visual symbols can often seem obvious, but are anything but. Symbols still have to abide by the common law of interpretation and run over a lifetime of complex thoughts, feelings, and experiences. The machinery of our lives does the real heavy lifting here. I like that.
Cross 2020