You Don’t Understand Until You Understand

by Caspar Schjelbred

Reading time:  minutes

Bench by the sea, overlooking the horizon.

You don’t understand something until you understand it.

You don’t understand someone until you understand them.

You don’t understand anything until you understand everything. 

– No, that last one was an exaggeration.

But it’s almost true.
I wrote it to see if maybe
Maybe it could be true 
To see if I could understand 

But I don’t
At least not yet 
Maybe I will, one day
And then perhaps
I’m glad I wrote it down

(Down, manner of speaking
I’m typing this out sideways
On my phone
In the middle of the night
While my wife is sleeping
Loudly behind me
I mean, she’s just breathing
But everything is louder in the night
Isn’t it?)

You understand suddenly
Something
Or someone - whatever that means
Maybe it’s just something
About someone
That you understand

Anyway 

You suddenly understand
And then what?

What do you do?
What do you do with it?
What do you do with your understanding?

Do you keep breathing life into it?

Or do you file it away
Under Things I Have Understood?

About the World

           Up
           Down
           Left
           Right
           Wrong
           Good
           Bad
           Life
           Death
           Love
           Etc.

About People

            Myself
            Mother
            Father
            Brother
            Sister
            “Significant Others”
            Husband
            Wife
            Daughter
            Son
            Friend
            Cat
            Dog

About this and that

There’s always more to understand
More to be understood
More for the endless archives
More to build on
More understandings
Closed cases

That’s it!
And that was that.
Next!

You can’t keep breathing life into all of it
Can you?
I mean, that old dog died years ago
Should you not let it rest in peace?
With everything else?

What does it even mean
To breathe life into it?

To keep the thought, the memory
Alive?

Yes, we get it
BUT those are just words
Old used words
What does it mean?
How do you do it?
And why should you?

You know
You understand

And if you don’t
You will
When you do

That’s just the way it works


——
20/01/2025

Published: January 31, 2025

Last modified: January 31, 2025

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