Sometimes, like when we're really bored on a long road trip, Aaron and I will have some pretty deep, all existential-like conversations. We have this sort of game we play, which I'll call, "You know what really blows my mind?" Invariably, we'll get to a point where one of us calls the other weird, and then the other tries to be, "But, no! Let me explain better what I mean!" and then the first one is all, "You're still weird."
A recent example of this was when I was explaining to him how amazing it is to me that we can all understand each other - written word, spoken word, visual cues - we all use the same terms to mean the same things and can understand what other people mean. Then I mentioned, what if we all see colors differently? I mean, we're taught that you see a certain color, and that's what it's called. So, you see something and someone tells you it's called yellow, and so from now on, that color is yellow to you. But, are we all seeing yellow the same, or are we do we see it differently but know that it's yellow because that's what we're taught it is? Does this make any sense?
Anyway, this conversation, like usual, wound down to the English language, and how some words are spelled weird and completely unlike how they are actually pronounced. Aaron's most recent examples are the words "one" and "two." I mean, we all know how they're pronounced, because everyone pronounces them this way, but how did they become pronounced those ways and so differently from how they're spelled? And then, also, why is it that "first", "second", and "third" and not, "oneth" or "onest", "twoth" or "twond", and "threed" or "threest". I mean, yeah, they sound weird to us now, but how did that all evolve?
Of course, the remedy for all this major brain usage is to plop down in front of something mindless on the television as soon as we get home, but we know someday it will happen again. We'll be in the car, and one of us will start in: "You know what really blows my mind?"
Don't even get me started on the conversation about how humans discovered animals could be eaten, because there's a whole religious debate raging on with that one and we're not allowed to ever bring it up ever again. Ever.
So how about you. Anything that really blows your mind? I need some new conversation fodder, because we've got some long road trips coming up.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Okay, whoa. I had to read the paragraph about the colors two times, and that really DOES blow my mind. I never thought about that before.
I have often pondered the color thing - and figured it all has something to do about the waves of light so we're probably all *close* to seeing the same thing but how would we ever know for sure?!?
The eating-animals debate is an interesting one....
Leave a Comment