The Truth of Alice (in Wonderland)

It's another Sol's day . . . and Fall is really getting ready to fall into Okieland . . .

Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the earth revolves. - Thích Nhất Hạnh.

Let's get this straight: ALL languages are metaphors as are the symbols that make them up. Every symbol, every word “stands for” (refers to) something else other than what substantively “it” is. “C” – in this instance refers to the k sound or symbol, “A” – the ah sound or symbol, “T” – the ta sound or symbol – strung together refer to the usually furry, purry, independent, not necessarily social critter we call a “cat.” That said, your brain generates an image for you that is unique to you. Your “cat” is likely not my “cat” – at least not immediately unless you've been recently reading “Alice in Wonderland.”

Similarly, if you've been (or ever) reading “The Bible” a similar confusion may surround our notions of “the fruit of the tree of knowledge.” Nowhere in any translation is the “fruit” identified. Yet somehow we've been told it was an apple. That's the problem with a preoccupation with literal to physical reality corrrespondences. How we got to the “apple” is a convoluted journey from the greek word for “evil” — so I’ve read somewhere — which somehow became “apple” somewhere on the not-so-straight-line. The “fruit” is a metaphor as is the entire book. “Truth” is another matter for another blurb.

Speaking of getting things straight(er): The European Union has a much stronger – while mandating diverse – democracy than our rather rag-tag-mish-mash metaphor here in the U.S. of A.

Jus’ sayin’ — jab