I while back I talked about how “the map is not the territory,” about the fact that you can’t capture reality in words or in art.
It just occurred to me that it’s even deeper than that. Everything is a metaphor. Everything a human being can experience at any rate. Your reality consists of metaphors, not just in the words you think, but in what you see, smell, feel and taste.
It is not a pipe. And the flower you saw in real life was only an approximation of a flower.
When you look at a flower, you don’t see a flower. You see a simile. Something that is very much like a flower. A simulation in other words. Actual reality is a lot bigger than a person could experience, so our minds give us approximations.
We experience an approximation of the world we actually live in. How accurate the approximation depends on more than your eyesight. It depends on what you think is important enough to notice, and what it would you think it means.
All of those filters depend on what you’ve been taught, by your parents, in school and through your culture. Cultures don’t always get it right. They change their minds. At one time the sun went arount the earth. Now we know it’s the other way around.
That’s why if you want to get as close as you can to actual reality, it’s good to question your assumptions.
Late Boomer's Den 
You must be logged in to post a comment.