Understanding

Understanding is a long word. It combines a preposition, under, with a verb, standing.“Standing” is the present (here and now) tense, meaning that it is happening now.

But the word “understanding” functions as a noun, something that is present in the mind of a person who comprehends the meaning, or the importance, or the significance of whatever is happening, or understand the meaning of an object, such abook, a document, a work of art, statue or any given thing that happens to show up.

A STOP sign is understood by the driver; an EXIT sign is undersood.

When a person achieves old age, as this writer has after 75 summers, their understanding of this world, or this life, is more complete than it was at, say, age 25, or age 50. We old folks like to think that we know a thing or two about what is going on in this life, whether it is obvious, or behind the scenes.

I’ll provide an example here. Consider the events that took place at the US Capitol on January 6, 2020, when our Congress was attacked by a mob of proud boys, oath bleepers and 3%ers, along with a bunch of other wild people.

There are two ways to understand this event. Either it was lawful and permissible, or it was unlawful and criminal. Was it in the same category as the American Revolution, a legitimate cause with a belligerent strategy, or an unjust attempt to seize power and authority? Was it a rebellion, as the southern states had attempted in the Civil War? Or was it an attempt to overthrow a rigged election? (NO!)

In our present circumstance, our United States of America is in a divisive predicament. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, who established the foundational document of true understanding. Understand it by reading Mattew 5:

Blessed are. . . the gentle people, people who are pure in their motives, people who have been persecuted even when they were right;Jesus advises opponents in a court to settle their differences before they drag the court people into the dispute. He also advises us to turn the other cheek when someone slaps us with an insult or a punch or some other offense. Jesus understood what was going on in human history.

The bottom line of this treatise on understanding is: try to figure things out, calm down, make peace with your opponent before the sh** hits the fan, or the punch is thrown or the shot is fired or whatever.

Now that I have presented a reasonable explanation of “understanding” and its importance, I’ll direct you to musical representation, as conducted by the Moody Blues, in a place far away, a time long ago:

Glass half-Full