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“Life is not separate from death. It only looks that way.”
- Native American proverb, Blackfoot.
The English language is a lot more complicated than one would imagine. If it is your first language you might not agree with me but, mastering this language is easier said than done. It is confusing, tricky and complicated.
Take the verb COMMIT for example. It has 5 senses:
1. perform an act, usually with a negative connotation
2. give entirely to a specific person, activity, or cause
3. cause to be admitted; of persons to an institution
4. confer a trust upon
5. make an investment
It is just one of the many cases where the English language is unnecessarily complex. Although, life is quite complex in its own right. Complicated yet beautifully simple..
Complicated and simple are really two sides of the same coin: in order to see complexity, you have to have the notion of simplicity, and vice-versa. So neither complexity NOR simplicity have any independent reality of their own.
It is only when you get accustomed to the confusion, that nagging feeling that things are too easy, that there is an anxiety associated with this sense that life is supposed to be so complex and pulling us in many directions at once .
The mind has the ability to separate things from each other. This ability is what makes life look complicated. But the mind is also capable of, synthesis, the ability to put pieces together into larger wholes.
Interesting… Alternatively, some view languages with a wider vocabulary than English (e.g. those with different words for different meanings of “commit”) as more complicated. Mandarin comes to mind. Languages with a narrower vocab than English could be viewed as simpler (e.g Bantu languages.) But yeah, English has it’s special set confusions aside from vocabulary, even amongst it’s European contemporaries. Namely; a lot of it’s constructs are not based on rules like other languages, but rather on customs. Rules are easy to teach/learn. Customs are hard to teach/learn. Rules remain largely fixed. Customs change over time and geography.
On synthesis… You might be interested to also have a look at “Cognitive Pattern Recognition.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_psychology) Musicians are particularly good at this (both visually and auditory.) Mathematicians are good at this with numbers. Computer geeks are good at it with abstractions. Business analysts are good at this with trends. Some have said that people successful in life are very good at recognising life’s patterns, in both their own lives and other successful/unsuccessful peoples lives, past and present.
I’d argue that the best “thinkers” in history were all masters of pattern recognition of human lives. Pondering and summarising other people’s synthesis.