I hate to admit this, but confusion is a bit of a life long affliction for me. Things that seem to be obvious to everyone else, just leave me perplexed. I've forever been told that the problem is that I don't pay close enough attention. So my whole life I've tried and tried and tried to pay closer attention, but honestly it's never really helped my confusion.
But today I had a bit of a revelation. It's sort of a long story, so bear with me...
OK, so yesterday was the solar eclipse - 92% here in Denver. I knew we wouldn't be seeing darkness, or the sun's corona, as you would if you were under the "path of totality" - but I had heard over and over that we would see crescent moon shaped shadows everywhere, and for this I was very excited.
I charged the battery on my camera, and I got all of my morning chores done early so I could be completely free for the entire time of the eclipse to witness the spectacular shadows.
And so I sat out on my front porch in the sun with my pinhole camera waiting for the shadows to appear. Once I could see the eclipse happening through the pinhole camera, I started to hold up random objects, waiting for them to cast moon shaped shadows. I tried everything I could think of - I held up my hand, held up my camera, held up rocks, and balls, and sticks, and leaves, and even the neighbor's cat.
I figured eventually something would cast one of those moon shaped shadows, but for all my trying, I got nothing.
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| See? Just leaves |
But today... today I hopped on the interwebs and discovered that several of my blogging buddies had posted pictures of these amazing crescent moon shadows... and suddenly it hit me.
It wasn't the shadows that were supposed to be moon shaped, it was the light between the shadows! Gah!! Why didn't all of the people on TV just say what they meant?
Then I had a funny feeling. I went and got my camera and looked at all of the pictures I'd shot during the eclipse. I did remember taking a few shots of some "funny light" on the back deck as I was heading out to pick the cucumbers... and sure enough:
Good GAWD!
Suddenly, a million other "moments of confusion" from throughout my life rushed through my mind.
I remembered my 9th grade science teacher trying in vain to explain to me how they could tell the distance of the moon using triangles and the Pythagorean theorem. She kept saying that all you need is three points and an angle... so you've got your location, and the moon, then you just pick another "known point" and you've got it.
Now, in my mind "your location" was the earth. So if you've got the earth as point one, and the moon as point two, then how can you possibly know the location of a third point, because wouldn't said third point also have to be an outer space object? So how could you know it's location without first having some other "known point" to find it? It's an infinite loop of sorts. I think that poor woman spent half an hour trying to explain this to me.
Finally it was my brother who explained that the mysterious third point could also be on the earth. WHY DIDN'T SHE JUST SAY THAT?!?!
And then there was the movie that CatMan and I watched last week.
I think we had to stop it 5 times because I got lost. Finally the big ending came and I totally did NOT understand. CatMan tried hopelessly to explain that xyz character had ended up with the money from the drug deal at the beginning.
"Drug deal?" I asked in perplexed confusion. "What drug deal?" It took me until the next day to realize that the entire plot revolved around this drug deal at the beginning of the movie which I totally missed because all I saw was something about a big suitcase and a key to an airport locker. If there was this big important drug deal that the whole plot revolved around, WHY DIDN'T THEY JUST SAY THERE WAS A DRUG DEAL? I guess it was supposed to be obvious... sigh.
And then there were all the posts on Facebook about Charlottesville, and what, if any blame should go to the "BLM people." Now... in my world "BLM" means the Bureau of Land Management - much of the forest land here in Colorado is BLM land.
Soo... I was confused about why the BLM had anything to do with Charlottesville. The best I could figure it had something to do with Cliven Bundy and his standoff with authorities over grazing rights on BLM land... but I didn't know they were in Charlottesville too. It took me several days of puzzling over nonsensical Facebook posts to realize that in this context BLM meant "Black Lives Matter."
Good lord! WHY DIDN'T THEY JUST SAY WHAT THEY MEANT?!?
So. My revelation is this: My perpetual state of confusion has absolutely nothing to do with paying attention. My problem is that I fail to make the right assumptions about what people meant, as opposed to what they actually said!
Perhaps I just suffer from "literal brain" syndrome. Sorta like the character in my favorite childhood books, Amelia Bedelia. Now she was a person I could understand!
Well anyhow. I'm not sure what good my little revelation does me, but it is interesting.
In the meantime, the flowers in my front yard have finally bloomed.
Hard to get too confused about that!
Hope you all enjoyed the eclipse... whatever you saw in the shadows!!
Great post, I'm an Amelia Bedelia person too. I'm always saying, just say what you mean.
ReplyDeleteGlad I'm not the only person with a soft spot for good old Amelia Bedelia.
DeleteI'm the same way. Can't even handle too many characters in movies because I can't keep track of who is who.
ReplyDeleteWell, in that case I wouldn't recommend "Get Shorty!"
DeleteMany years ago I went to a Batman movie with some friends. I was very confused because there was a female character with long blonde hair who seemed to switch between being good and being evil. I had all sorts of complicated plot theories in my head... maybe she's some sort of double agent... maybe she's really good but she's being secretly controlled by an evil character... and then... near the end of the movie they both showed up in the same scene! Yup, it was 2 entirely different characters/actresses. Oy Vay!
First of all, your front yard is beautiful. Do you have it all in flowers now?
ReplyDeleteI think you understand things just fine. In each example you gave, I think it was not that you were too literal, it was that the people explaining things had an assumption that their audience had a certain level of knowledge that they didn't have. I probably wouldn't have caught onto the drug thing in the movie either. It's just not the first thing my mind goes to. We watched a drug exchange happen in a Wendy's parking lot very close to us once and I had no clue what was going on until my husband explained it. Then it made sense. But instead of a drug exchange I just thought they were friends exchanging a book.
I'm not sure that I'm making sense, but I don't have time to write any more. Gotta get some yard work done before dark. Let me finish with, I think you are a very smart person who analyzes things very well.
Awwww, you are so sweet. You know, now that I think about it, I wonder if I'm just more bothered than your average bear when I don't understand things. So instead of just "letting it go" and figuring that someone will explain it if it's really important, my brain tries to force it to make sense... and when you don't have all the information that can get you into trouble!
DeleteLike when I was a little kid I thought that stoplights made a funny rhythmic clicking sound - and, much to my mother's confusion, when I didn't hear the sound I would comment that the light's clicker was broken. It wasn't until years later that I realized the sound was actually coming from the car's turn signal!
Anyhow, the front yard is now about half flowers. The lawn got some sort of fungus and died, and rather than try to replant it, I just scattered wildflower seeds and called it done. I'm rather liking how it turned out! Now I just have to dig out the remaining dead grass and convert the whole thing to flowers for next year!
For the longest time, I thought the phases of the moon (new moon, crescent moon, full moon) were caused by the earth casting shadows on the moon: basically, an eclipse every night.
ReplyDeleteI figure we all get confused by stuff...right?
Wait, you mean that's not what causes phases of the moon? Oh dear. I think I see some Wikipedia in my near future...
DeleteOops! If we're between the moon and sun, we can see the sun lighting up the whole side that we see and the back side is all dark. But if the moon is off to the side, we can see part of the shadow (from the part of the moon closest to the sun) and part of the lit part. The back side that we can't see right then is also partly lit and partly in shadow. Hope that helps!
DeleteToo bad no one explained to you that the spaces between the leaves were like little pinhole cameras and that's why you can see a bunch of crescent shapes.
With movies, this is one of the reasons it's so great to see it with another person. We can each explain the stuff that's obvious to us but that the other person didn't get.
And that picture of your yard is just gorgeous. My brother recently visited me and tried to ask politely if we wanted our yard to like like it does on purpose. Ha ha!
OK wait... I'm still confused on the moon thing. So if the moon is off to the side and part of it is in shadow... isn't that shadow from the earth? I think I need to go find a diagram here... or perhaps the problem is more semantics than anything.
DeleteYour brother's comment about your yard totally cracks me up. When I was pulling up the carpet I needed some help moving the television so I could get to the section under the entertainment center, so I asked my neighbor to help me. He took one look around and blurted out "Do you want some help decorating this place?" It made me laugh out loud.
Anyhow, all I did in the front yard was scatter a $7 bag of "wildflower seeds" from Home Depot, and set up a soaker hose. Easy Peasy - and I think I'm definitely doing it again next summer!
OK... CatMan explained the moon thing to me. Actually he had to have me act it out in order to get it - I was the moon, the footstool was the earth, and the lamp was the sun. Apparently I'm a "hands on" learner! :-)
DeleteOh man, I thought the moon was due to the earth shadow too...even though I am aware of the lamp/footstool acting out thing at school... I think I must have understood it at some point but have since got confused!
DeleteGlad CatMan could explain! And surely at least some of your wildflowers will re-seed themselves!
DeleteHere's another way to think about the moon thing. If you walk outside on a sunny day, you can see the trees (or other things) are lit up on one side, and shaded on another side. The lit up side points to the sun, and the darker side is away from the sun.
DeleteAnd that's *exactly* what's happening with the moon. The lit-up side is pointing toward the sun, and the dark side is in the shade. (I hope that makes sense).
Miser-Mom, I like your explanation, and it's pretty much what CatMan had me act out in the living room. I put the full explanation of the living room solar system dance in a reply to Eliza's comment below - if anyone's curious.
DeleteI'm not sure I would have understood the shadows thing either...though I assumed that 'BLM' meant 'people who were protesting against white supremecists', though I didn't know what the letters actually stood for. But then again I didn't have an acronym I already knew to confuse matters! (Occasionally I come across a similar situation, where they appear to be referring to a totally unrelated organisation in a news story, but somehow I've avoided long term confusion- perhaps because the story usually mentions the organisation by its full name at some point and then it makes sense!) I do sometimes get confused, but generally I think I am quite good at picking up what people mean, even if it is not what they actually said.
ReplyDeleteI think your teacher could have solved them triangle/know points/moon thing with a diagram...that might just be because I like a diagram though! If you didn't understand, she should have explained it differently.
Also I meant to say the flowers look lovely!
DeleteDiagrams! Yes! We need diagrams!
DeleteI'm sorta thinking that perhaps for people in other parts of the country, BLM isn't quite the day to day acronym that it is here. From my perspective it was sorta like using the letters USA to mean "Ukranian Soothsayer's Alliance" or something! :-)
And I'm glad you like the flowers. It was ridiculously easy. I'm definitely gonna do more of that next summer!
Wonderful post. I was only thinking this morning that people assume because they can talk they can also communicate well. I think mis-communication is more common than actual communication. I can remember teachers at school who may have knew all about the subject they were teaching but they had problems communicating. As for confusion - that is my natural state at the moment as I started a new job last week. Talk about a big learning curve. But it's good for me and giving my brain lots of exercise.
ReplyDelete"...people assume because they can talk they can also communicate well." Truer words were never spoken! You've gotta wonder how many of the world's ills are simply due to the fact that we fail to communicate clearly!
DeleteWhen I was a kid there was a Disney book on my shelf that totally creeped me out. It was Cinderella. There was this part where it was talking about the fairies at the ball, and it said, "Her eye fell on Cinderella's dress, and all of a sudden Cinderella's dress started changing colors."
ReplyDeleteOf course, they meant, "the fairy happened to look at the dress", but I was totally grossed out by someone's eye falling onto someone else's clothes. Ew.
Also, when people say, "Put mulch on the garden" they mean "put mulch *around* the flowers, not *on* the flowers. Because putting mulch *on* the flowers (even though that's what they SAID) kills the flowers. Ask me how I know.
Ha! OK - I had me a good gafaw at the eyes falling on the dress thing. And putting mulch "on" the flowers... oh no!
DeleteI think that Live and Learn is right ... many times, those people who are explaining things are doing it from a context they know and understand well, whereas the learner may not be at all familiar with the context. It's all new learning for them, and the one teaching needs to back up several steps to explain it correctly. Also, we all learn in different manners--visual, auditory, kinesthetic ... we tend to learn best if the manner in which we are taught is our preferred manner for learning. You can choose to tune out now ... (commence snoring!) ... but that's one of the things OTs are taught for helping our patients learn--if one teaching method doesn't work, choose a different technique! I would put the fault with your instructors! So there! (and by the way, I learn best by doing ... and we are not alone, MANY people do!)
ReplyDeleteYou know, when I used to run the music school I observed that quite often the people who were really good natural musicians were also horrible teachers. It was like since they'd never really had to think about it, they were incapable of breaking it down to explain it to a student.
DeleteAnd I am most definitely a hand's on sort of learner. Not sure if you read the comments above about phases of the moon or not, but seriously, I read and read and couldn't understand until CatMan made me act out the solar system in the living room!
I've heard the same thing said about horse riding instructors- there are some really great riders who are terrible instructors because they are naturally talented and just *do* the right thing, without really knowing what they are doing that is working.
DeleteThose who are less naturally talented and have had to work out what to do to get the right results are better teachers as they have had to go through the process of working it out.
I had a disagreement with my MIL about a year ago--my daughter was struggling with a math concept and I made the comment that math skills came too easily to the teacher, and, like you said, she couldn't break it down enough to make it understandable. My MIL (an educator) vehemently disagreed, saying that those with a natural math ability are by far the best math teachers. That certainly hasn't been my experience! Those who understand the struggle work harder to make things more clear.
DeleteI was also unfamiliar with BLM and I think maybe CatMan needs to do his solar system demo for me! Ha! Makes me think about how I communicate and want to be better at being clear and understandable.
I think the problem comes when the naturally gifted folks don't realize that they aren't communicating to their students. One time when I was running the music school I asked a friend who is a bit of a local singing star if she would give a workshop of some sort. She looked at me and said "I wouldn't have the faintest idea what to tell somebody to do! I just open my mouth and sing!" -- And there it is!
DeleteAnyhow, I tried to explain CatMan's solar system demo in a reply to Eliza's comment below, if either of you are curious.
This post was so entertaining. I can certainly understand you confusion because many of the things that you've mentioned confused me too!
ReplyDeleteI've gotten to the point that when I am reading a book, in the inside cover I have to write down the characters as they appear and some notes on who they are and who they are related to. I didn't used to have to do that!
At work many times my younger co-worker will give me some information and she will see me writing it down and tell me that it's easy, I can remember that. I tell her I only have so much memory left in my computer brain and I'm going to use it to remember happy moments and beautiful friends and family and artwork...I'm not going to waste my brain memory on work and things I can locate when I need them :)
Ha! I love your memory space allocation thing! And inability to keep characters straight is one of the reasons I have troubles when it comes to books. The worst were the Russian novels we had to read in school. Not only were the names unpronounceable (bad news for a person who is aurally focused like I am) but they all had about a dozen nick names, none of which were obvious to English speakers! Seriously, reading Crime and Punishment was like torture - I never figured out what my crime was, but that book was definitely the punishment! :-)
DeleteI like your memory allocation thing- can I use that as an excuse for not being able to remember words now I have hit my thirties?!
DeleteThirties! Oh my... you ain't seen nothin' yet, my friend! Just wait a decade or two, then you'll REALLY need an excuse!
DeleteImagine how few words I will be able to use in a couple of decades...!
DeleteThink I need to do some sort of brain training or crosswords to sharpen my mind up!
Oh my goodness, your post made me chuckle and I feel like we are kindred spirits. Amelia Bedelia is my favorite! And I, too, am acronymally challenged. Just yesterday I received an invitation to a neighborhood fiesta-themed party serving catered Mexican food that says: "BYOD if you want something different or in case we run out." BYOD is a thing? I'm clueless. Run out of what? I'm so confused.
ReplyDeleteNow after reading all of your comments I realize I'm also totally in the dark (ha) about the shadow on the moon, so I'm going to try and find a video or something to help my brain.
Your flowers are simply wonderful! After our dialogue about lawns, I am so tickled that you came up with that beautiful solution. BLM! (Blossoms Look Marvelous!)
Ha! BYOD - let's see... Bring Your Own... Dessert? Dressing? Dog? Dumbledore? The mind reels!
DeleteSo you reminded me of a story. When I was first learning Linux, I had this Linux guru friend who I would email when I got stuck. Well, one day I was having a particularly bad time, and when my friend's help email arrived it was full of so many technical words that I couldn't understand it. It was a straw that broke the camel's back sort of moment, and I called CatMan in tears crying that I was too stupid to even understand the email. He calmed me down and proceeded to try to help me with the technical language.
"So what's the first term you don't understand?" he asked.
"IMHO!" I replied through sobs.
This, of course, made CatMan burst out laughing. I was so sure that the problem was my lack of technical expertise, that it never even occurred to me that it could be something as simple as "in my humble opinion!" Oh my!
Anyhow... CatMan's solar system dance in the living room helped me understand the moon thing. Sooo... put a chair or something in the middle of the room with enough room to walk around it - that's the earth. Now, put a lamp off at one end of the room - that's the sun. Now you're the moon, and you have to orbit the earth. Apparently (I didn't know this) when the moon orbits the earth the same side is always facing the earth, so when you "orbit" stay facing your "earth."
Now... however much light from the lamp is hitting your face is how much of the moon we can see from earth. So when your back's to the lamp/sun we see no moon, and when you're facing the lamp/sun we see a full moon. But if you go half way between those positions the lamp/sun will be shining on half of your face but the other half will be in shadows.
Well... I don't know if I explained that very well, but the moment when the lamp/sun lit up half of my face I had an a-ha moment and it suddenly made complete sense.
I'm glad you said this, because this happens to me and it's embarrassing! SO frequently, my mind will go to the second or third most likely thing, instead of the obvious answer. I don't know if it's because I've done this frequently consciously in the past in order to be more funny, creative or counter-intuitive, but now it's just a default setting and it can be frustrating. Your BLM example is a good one. Even with trying to remember words, I sometimes pick out the oddest ones for no good reason and it'll take me five seconds to think of the more appropriate one.
ReplyDeleteYou should've seen us during the eclipse. My wife and I were both trying to remember how you could see the crescent shapes. I'd seen pictures of it but couldn't figure out how to get it to work. Then my wife said, "Isn't it like a pinhole camera?" and neither of us knew what that was either.
Ha! I still can't believe that I couldn't figure it out - I mean I was sitting there with a pinhole camera, so it should have been obvious. Anyhow, I'm sure the neighbors were wondering what I was doing as I was wandering around holding up random objects!
DeleteI had a similar problem with the eclipse. I had an appointment that day and we all rushed to get outside to view the eclipse.
ReplyDeleteThe sky was otherworldly but the full sun was in view. We were only supposed to have a 72% eclipse but still I should have been able to see something, right? I held my hand up to block the intense rays of the sun and tried to view the edges of the sun with one eye, still nothing. Then a woman brought out these glasses and low and behold I could see the moon covering the sun! We all tried our best to hold the glasses up to our phones to get pictures but couldn't photograph the eclipse. I pondered all day why they work on our eyes but not the camera when I finally gave up and just accepted I'd never understand.
If I ever get to see another one I might try harder to get my hands on some of the glasses. All in all though, I guess you really do have to be in the path of totality to get the real impact.
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