interpretations vs. assumptions

Fuck the past.

Don’t let it define your life.

Look ahead, move forward.

Dylan stopped by for a little while when I got off work. We paired some shots of bourbon with shots of espresso, and we sat on the front porch after sunset and shared a cigar. I’m going to miss him once he leaves: our deep talks, mutual understanding, accountability and honesty, the way I can be myself around him, how we laugh until we cry. He’s a great friend, and he’s not shy about calling me out when my cynicism runs too deep. I wonder what might have happened had Nietzche had a friend like him?

This evening we talked again about the tight connection between Perception and Praxis (i.e. behavior). The two cannot be disconnected, despite what many evangelicals will tell you. Behavior modification—or, really, just any attempt at changing behavior—will falter unless the root of behavior is addressed first. Many Christians will tell you the opposite: “Change your behavior, and your perception will soon follow.” While there’s an element of truth to this—for in Christ we are called to change our behaviors even before our perceptions are reworked—the constant refrain of the New Testament is, as we see in Romans 12, a call to renew the mind. This isn’t some packed metaphor but an outright, direct command: “Change the way you think.” How we perceive ourselves, others, the world, and God himself will affect how we live. Our perceptions affect our praxis, and not just that, but our emotional states as well. Perception is everything. Don’t give me that bullshit about changing your behavior and hoping the perception will soon follow. It doesn’t work that way.

Regardless, the point of all this is the same as what is to be found in the former post: I need to change the way I perceive the world. I need to observe, and I need to take into account not just what I’ve experienced, but what is experienced by others all across the world. There is joy in life. Happiness can be found. Contentment and peace is a reality. As an aside, all of these “feelings” are directly connected to our brains; and these feelings are largely determined by the nature of how we perceive the world. Perception is everything.

And so the questions arise: “How do I perceive myself? How do I perceive my life? How do I perceive God and his relationship (and I mean that in the most literal sense) towards me?” Perception is tied to interpretation; and all the data gathered is susceptible to both right and wrong interpretations, and these interpretations are the building-blocks of worldviews. Tweaking the interpretations will, by necessity, tweak the worldviews. How I perceive myself, my life, and God are rooted in my interpretations of my life events thus far. Perhaps there are other ways to interpret these things, ways not yet pondered, not yet submitted to the litmus test of reliability? It’s foolish to embrace one way of interpretation and then to stick it out without questioning some of the most basic assumptions rooted in those interpretations; after all, every interpretation is itself borne from certain assumptions and convictions, and ascertaining those can lead to a more in-depth and surgical approach to altering perception.

“We are slaves to our assumptions.” I’ve said this once, and I’ll say it again. As with interpretations, so it is with assumptions, albeit even more-so. Because an interpretation grows from an assumption, any struggling with the interpretation without weeding out the assumptions and examining them on the same merit will be met with an endless wrestling match. Uncover the assumptions, figure out which are valid and which are not, and then move on to the task of altering perception, and of thus reorienting praxis. The questions then arise, again: “What’re my assumptions regarding myself, my life and God?” Assumptions are more difficult to determine, because they lie so deep under the fabric of interpretations. And now I’ve pretty much gone cross-eyed just thinking about all this. Now the point is this: “I need to uncover my assumptions, examine them appropriately, and then work from there.” Start at the foundation rather than the elegant superstructures, and you’ll make more headway.