interpretation

One time in Danish class, I told a guy that the word for gums in your mouth (tandekød) was the word for taint (mellumkød). His danish wife saw me trying to fuck with him and stopped him before he got carried away, but for one second, he was telling a story about how he had a tooth extraction from his taint and it was gold.

Interpretation is everything.

I wish Danish was a language that needed interpreters but it doesn’t. I just always thought it would be cool to be the person in the middle of an exchange, where your ability to translate the concerns of one party to another matter. I still have this fantasy where an old danish couple get lost in Charleston and I get to help them and use this dead part of my brain. But even older Danes are good enough in English to get around.

Interpreting events in life is just as important and just as confusing at times. Things happen, and we are all guessing at what they mean. Many times our guesses are based on how we feel. When I am having a productive day, I interpret minor inconveniences as inconsequential. When I am having an emotional day, I interpret the same event as a cosmic sign that life is against me and I, try as I might, will never get ahead.

How stupid is that.

So stupid.

And yet I do it all the time.

Its not one bad day we fear, its a bad day that is connected to an endless root of bad days, spreading out into your life like a climbing vine, poisoning everything.

The good news that is all horse shit. How many days have you had that were utter failures, but in hindsight were the start of greatness? And how many days have you had where you thought you were on to something only to learn you were wrong?

Whatever your interpretation of events are, they are probably going to be totally wrong to kinda wrong, depending on circumstance. This is a common trap empathetic and intuitive people fall into.

Their feeling of something is god. And like Fox news, they don’t fact check their feelings. This rational poverty can feel great on other days, but in a bad week, when your heart is telling you lies, it feels like death and its completely unnecessary.

Your interpretation of events is your gift to yourself. Be as accurate, logical, and empathetic as you can. You will probably be wrong regardless, so air on the side of positivity and kindness.

You know the old expression “whats the biggest room in the world? Your mother’s bath tub”. jk, room for improvement. You get me.