When I was younger I believed that it was the thought that mattered expressed in words, pictures or sound. The person behind the thought could be considered as independent from the thought. Experience has completely changed my mind.

I’ve come to believe that everything is relative there is no such thing as absolute truth. To do a decent job of interpreting words, pictures or sounds you need to know a lot about yourself as well as the author. The more you know, the more complete is your interpretation. It also helps to know something of the medium of communication between you and the author as well as the context within which the comment was made.

In other words…. Images and words do not stand alone.

For example, when I hear someone utter the expression “That’s bullshit”, it means next to nothing to me unless I know the person making the statement and the context in which it was made.

These days whenever I notice something that catches my interest, it could be a building, a poem, a song on the radio, a photograph, an equation or a tree, I want to know something of the author. The more interest I have for the product the more I want to know of the author. I find knowledge of the author really helps in my interpretation of the thoughts.

Trying to find something of the author of that tree could be an experience all on it’s own.

When I started this blog it wasn’t a blog. It was a mental exercise for my memory and a vehicle to improve my writing ability. I chose the blog medium as an interesting experiment with technology on the net. It then evolved into a way to capture some of the things I wanted to pass on to my children.

It’s now grown into it’s own beast, slightly out of control and I’ll just have to see what happens.

I do know that when I read other peoples material and find something of interest, that I wanted to know a great deal about the author. Knowledge of the author helps me interpret what the author was saying.

On the other hand there is nothing wrong with imposing my own interpretation of the subject, I like doing that too and it can have it’s own value.

But I still want to know what the author was trying to say. It’s sort of like paying respect to the author and his subject. I almost feel like I am stealing something if I don’t make an attempt to understand what the author was saying.

The author may have an objective of removing his personal “stamp” from his subject. Because of my earlier statement on relativity I think this is impossible, but of course the imprint of the stamp can be reduced. On the other hand we can revel in the personal stamp of the author especially if it is cleverly intertwined with the subject.

I have read many dry text books in my time where the author was definitely trying to reduce their own interpretation and let the concepts shine through and stand on their own. This may have value but I think they should also include their own perceptions. These perceptions add the human touch but of course also opens the author to personal attack.

I say, be brave, your opinion counts at least as much as the subject.

I thought I might take a shot at providing some of this knowledge on my own blog here.

Note: The pages linked on my “About” page are intended for my kids in answer to their many questions from whence, they and I came, as well as a few instructional articles. So far there is nothing that I don’t mind sharing with the public, so for now these pages will not be constrained by privacy settings.

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