"Suicide Medicine"

So, i just got home... While i was driving in the car, my ipod decided to shufle upon Rocky V's "Suicide Medicine" (i forgot how to spell his last name).. and, it reminded me of my mom because she had to go to the hospital recently, and they gave her some meds... on one of the bottles it said "if this medication upsets your stomach, take it crackers, bread, or a small meal" and automatically i thought: THAT ROCKY V song!... it's part of the lyrics to the song, but i never knew that they actually do put that on medicine bottles... i thought the words were just part of the song.. ( i don't take pills that often, so yeah)...but anyway, the songs says :

"If this medication upsets your stomach,
take it with crackers, bread, or a small meal
We understand it won't do shit towards a cure
But if you buy this, I promise you're gonna like
the way it makes you feel"

Prior to knowing that medication bottles actually have a sticker that states the first two lines, i sort of just interpreted the song as only talking about literal suicide, or about hard core (illegal) drugs or something.. but... NOW that i've gained more knowledge about medication bottles and their stickers and what those stickers might say, i get a totally new interpretation: perhaps the song is talking about our culture's love of medicine/pills as a cure... this constant consumption of drugs to "feel better;" drugs that get the virus or what not and punch it's lights out (contrary to the belief of balance found in Chinese medicine... it's like, rather than, give your body a little kick to punch out the bad guys, why not balance your body and give it the strength to fight ALL the bad guys on its own?... it's like comparing steriods and exercise/weight lifting... which is better? i'd like to say the latter)... anywayyyyy... my point it is, i got this COMPLETELY different message once i had a bit more knowldge about the subject... and it got me thinking: this is just a song here. a simple line (or 2) in a SONG. and by gaining more knowlege about something as trivial as medicine bottle stickers, i suddenly was able to develop a WHOLE new interpretation... if this can happen for LYRICS to a SONG.. imagine what it can do to OTHER THINGS...

i gained a new outlook on the phrase "Knowledge is power." ... it really is.

Say i'm reading a book... and there's like... hmm, idk, maybe 5 or 6 words i don't understand, or say, a paragraph or 2... but i just skip over them; i never realized how much you could possibly be CHEATING yourself by skipping over little things you dont understand... what if there was a phrase i didnt understand in the book i was reading (similar to how i didn't understand the phrase in the Rocky V song), and the understanding of that phrase would give me the key to unlock a totally new idea... a totally new understanding of the world.. a new worldview.. a new ideology.... it's crazy what big of a difference something as small as a word or phrase can make.

I'm not saying that having a bigger vocabulary or a larger understanding of common idioms makes you any "smarter" (whatever that is) or "better".. it DOES, however, help open more doors to UNDERSTANDING things... Thus, i have a new goal: INCREASE MY VOCABULARY! include idioms common to my culture as well as others...

... if you think about it... it's kinda like... all the disciplines within schools, and outside of schools (i.e. math, history, science, art, language, mechanics, dance, etc.) can metaphorically be seen as LANGUAGES... they're LANGUAGES to understand the world... they each provide their own perspective; their own view of the world.... of course, in the larger picture, we view our world and our reality through the lenses of our cultural constructs... but... all these disciplines can be seen as lenses as well... and sure... they all somehow contain a reflection of our cultural constructs, but in many ways, they also reflect the cultural constructs of societies OTHER than our own... i mean, America isn't the only country that has these disciplines...

It's like... everything began as an idea, and so, by immersing ourselves into all these subjects/disciplines, we're, in a way, attempting to understand those ideas (of which were, of course, created by PEOPLE.).... ideas ideas ideas. that's all everything really is... and how everything began... i understand that "everything" is a heavily loaded word.. it's so finite... but.. i'm just using it to try and get the point that i mean an unimaginable amount of things....

ideas. even 1+1=2 was an idea.

if we take all these disciplines and attempt to view the world through them and by them, we become more understanding people... we begin to see how OTHERS, not just ourselves, view the world... and so... learning all these subjects doesnt just make you a mathmatician, or scientist, or historian, or artist, or whatnot, it makes you a person more understanding of other's views.

=)

"A brain that never stops ticking,
sometimes an on-off switch would sure come in handy
A mind that's constantly cutting up and dissecting,
looking for answers, committing murders along the way"