“Literalism is the lowest, least fruitful level of meaning.”
– Richard Rohr
In our quest for comprehension, we often cling to the shoreline of literalism. We interpret words and events for their face value, reducing the multilayered essence of meaning to its most accessible layer. But that’s like relishing a cake only for its icing. It’s a simplistic taste of a more complex, rewarding experience.
True understanding, the kind that resonates deeply and initiates shifts in perception, dwells beneath the surface. It resides in the nuanced interpretations, the layered meaning.
Just as an artist infuses a brush stroke with emotion and a writer embeds multiple layers within a single sentence, so too does the true significance of events and conversations lie beneath the obvious.
Literalism? It’s just the tip of the iceberg, the surface that sits atop a deep sea of meaning. Embrace depth. Plunge beneath the surface and swim in the sea of the nuanced, the symbolic, and the profound.
It’s where the real treasure lies.