"Life was a misunderstanding" , by Erik Pevernagie, oil on paper, 66 x 88 cm  x

When the leaden haze of our lives starts cracking and tearing, and the forlornness and torpor in our minds are smoldering into ashes, we can softly hear the sounds of a new dawn and learn to pick up the magic of the words that make us understood among our neighbors.

If we are ignorant of the right language or don’t try to learn it, life can be a misunderstanding.« If lions could speak, we would not understand them, » says Ludwig Wittgenstein. However, if we make an effort, we can find out how we manage to understand.

Since an assiduous Frenchman, Jean-François Champollion, took an interest in deciphering and understanding the Egyptian hieroglyphs, he cleared up a world of ignorance and misunderstanding. So did the German Eduard Seler, who revealed through his tenacity the spirit of the pre-Columbians.

Life is damned to be a misunderstanding if we only see it as we think it is and not as it is, in reality. Life will be a sequence of misapprehensions if we experience it merely with our own quirky wording, our own constricted view, and not with the language of others.

If we do not hesitate to set sail for the deep waters of our thinking and take the time to cultivate the right words that we need to conceive and express our feelings, we could avoid many misconceptions.

Phenomenon: Life and misunderstanding

Factual starting point of the picture: Back of man