There comes a time when you swim or sink so I jumped in the drink ’cause I couldn’t make myself clear.
Maybe I wrote in invisible ink, oh I’ve tried to think how I could’ve made it appear.
― Aimee Mann/Invisible Ink
Aimee Mann is the Queen of Misunderstanding Angst.
Or maybe she’s the Queen of all Angst.
(Didn’t you love her when she was on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and performed at the Bronze? Me, too. Also, I miss Buffy.)
But that is not what I want to talk about.
I am easily distracted. Did I mention that?
Oh.
Well.
I am.
Squirrel!
Misunderstanding. Misreading. Misinterpretation.
Mistakes. Misremembering.
All the shit that goes along with trying to communicate.
It is easy for people to talk, but ohhhh.
Not so easy to make ourselves understood.
Between word choice, inattention and the tricks played by memory, it’s a miracle that anyone understands anything anyone says.
Did you all see this article about scientists implanting false memories in mice? I really need to stop reading shit like that. You know that feeling when you just know for certain that something is true? They can reproduce it by putting a certain protein in your brain and then shining a light on it (I am simplifying a bit). So on top of the problems we already have with communicating, we now have to worry that we’re trying to communicate about something that may not have even happened? That’s all I need. I mean, I know that memory is unreliable, I do, but it’s another thing to have folks working on a how-to.
I suppose I can worry about it once scientists have found a less invasive way to shine light into our brains. At this point it isn’t exactly something your kids will be able to do just to mess you up.
Watch Aimee sing “Invisible Ink” if you want…
Oh, and many invisible inks will appear if you hold the paper over light.
A lot of things get clearer with light.
Bad skin.
Books.
Flaws in knitting.
Thankfully not flaws in logic.
If you hold me up to a light, will I be any clearer?