To Understand....

The word "understand" likely came from a literal meaning of "to stand under" or "to stand in the midst of." This is exactly what I intend to do with my life.

I am currently a senior in college, majoring in anthropology, with a minor in sociology, fields I study because I never in all my life have had a true comprehension of the people around me. I have always felt on the outside looking in, with a notebook and a shallow observation of the rituals being performed in everyone else's life. I have never felt a part of it, and so the more hopeless I feel in the act of "standing in the midst" of it, the more I feel I must, for the sake of myself and for the sake of everyone around me, begin to integrate myself and my sense of being into the surrounding population of my fellow humans.

Of course, the piece of advice given regarding undertanding in the first mission, "Understand by observing the environment, infrastructure, culture and lives of people by being there" resonates with me personally, because my understanding of the world and its problems only scratches the surface, and the fact of the matter is, I want to know MORE. There is so much to be done, so much to be accomplished, but none of it can be achieved without a solid and thorough understanding of what conditions, ideas, infrastructure or mistakes problems originated under. Without that deep immersion in the problem, one cannot find the means to connect to it, to empathize with others that undergo it, and to truly WANT to solve it.

The sense of logic and reason that we humans are so incredibly proud of don't seem to be as disconnected with our emotions as we think. Learning and understanding are intertwined with how well we are personally invested in the things we are trying to grasp. What was the last thing you did well that you were not particularly interested in or didn't care about? Problems can be solved without care, but they certainly aren't solved well. Problems can be solved by throwing money at them, but those solutions only last so long, often not long enough.

To solve a problem well, one must care, and for one to care, one must fully immerse oneself in the issue to instill in them a sense of empathy, comraderie, and urgency. No one can be offended or enlightened by something they don't care about, and no one can care about something that they have no ties with.

There is no solution without understanding, emotional as well as rational.