Crooked

Somewhere sometime someone said something which stole another's mind and everything on it for a moment. He asks to hear it once more. He does more than think; he reevaluates. Even if he's from a place where free speech could cost him his tongue, he has to talk to loved ones. Casual conversation gets mixed with deep introspection, and they too find treasure buried in time's sand. They too must spread the words that were overlooked by the word of the Gods and the holy books. Soon the phrase flourishes. Soon enough, it's exchanged between empires, right beside goods and services. If there's no direct translation between languages, new words are made. It goes far. But it's not just passed on; it's also passed down. Children understand, for maturity isn't required when the meaning is so simple. All that's needed is a little bit of a beginner's mind. After they're grown, they too will pass on a heirloom belonging to Earth's one great big family. Enough generations pass, and new life is greeted with ancient wisdom. So what are these phrases? Depending on whose eyes you're looking into, they may be proverbs or cliches. You may regard the people who are always repeating those phrases as annoying, like the bugs always buzzing near your ear, and you want to smack both of them. But might you be overlooking something? Human vision easily misses the microscopic universe thriving on the skin; why can't the intellect fail to take a closer look? As an example, take the phrase "Go with the flow!" Do you understand what this means? Sure, the intellect grasps it after two seconds, but can you live it? Can you understand it beyond language? Another example: let's say you're handed complex sheet music for a piano, and you intellectually understand advanced math's cousin at first glance. Yet, you've never played the instrument in your life. Do you truly understand what's written on that paper? Will the mouth replace the hands at a piano concert? Can intellectual understanding substitute for actually playing? Does a couple hours of studying equal years of practice? In other words, can superficial comprehension take the place of deep embodiment? Return to "Go with the flow!" What does this mean to someone who runs in with guns flexing and blazing, always wanting to put every piece it in its place with just two legs and two arms? Now on the other end: What does this mean to someone who has truly learned to empty her mind? What's it mean if she accepts the events happening on the outside like she accepts the thoughts coming in on the inside? Now consider "Don't give up!" What does this mean to someone who is up in the stratosphere with economic/social privilege and has been spoon-fed all his life? What does this mean to a destitute person who came from a place where kick-the-can was soccer, but still earned many scholarships and eventually obtained a PhD in neuroscience? One more time: "Don't wish your life away." What does this mean to a high-status, high-strung type A personality who always wishes for the day to be over immediately after he seizes it? What does this mean to the same man fifty years later when he's the color of the sheets on his hospital bed, looking back on his life with everything to show for but nothing to live for? "Time will tell" the tale.