I guess I’m a stickler for
semantics. You know, a guru of
definitions. See, we get so caught up in
what we know, that we forget, that in a dictionary there can be more than one
way to define a word. For example,
romance is not all flowers and candy. It’s
a way of seeing life. It’s enjoying
writing letters as opposed to e-mail or phone calls. It’s looking for a rainbow after a flood
instead of seeing the damage caused.
It’s the opposite of a practical, pragmatic view of the world.
Another thing we get caught up in is
creativity. One man’s drunken ravings
are another’s high poetry. Bob Dylan
wrote beautiful poetry but abused some of the nastiest drugs. Emily Dickinson’s words touch many people but
she was suicidal.
We often judge others by what they hold
dear. Often symbols are subject to these
same multiple meanings. Sometimes we
change which meaning is common simply by using something more often. My screen name for instance is
Rainbowjay. I chose the rainbow for its
little remembered religious significance.
The rainbow was a sign for God to Noah that He would never again flood
the world. It was a symbol of a
covenant. A rainbow is also a beautiful
natural occurrence, a prism of light showing all colors. After reading those definitions, do you
wonder why the symbol is so coveted?
Since man has been able to speak and
write, we have learned to alter words to our best advantage. It is simply our ability to adapt combined
with our higher brain function. Without
those skills you wouldn’t be reading this and have the ability to make your own
conclusions. So instead of being upset
with the content be grateful that you can comprehend it at all.