Cliche is Context

Seth Godin wrote another compelling blog yesterday about the Cliche.  Read it before you read what I will have to say because I  may offend you if you are attached to context.

Let’s take  for example, much of the Western Hemisphere’s cliche view of the Swastika.  That iconic image for many is pregnant with pain and suffering.  That image was usurped by the Nazi’s and came to symbolize ravenous destructive power and genocide.

However, that image also symbolizes universal harmony to a Buddhist; to a Hindu it is a holy symbol representing the evolution of the universe; to the Japanese, it is a common road map symbol demarking an intersection; to some Native Americans it refered to the healing nature of the universe.   Wikipedia has an interesting narrative on the past and present cultural meanings of the equilateral cross broken at right angles.

Know this: Symbols are a gateway to meaning and connection.  However, you choose the meaning that you want to be connected to.  Look closely at that – what you connect yourself to.  Certainly, lives are lived in the context of experiences.  It is the great person, however, who can transcend the experiences of their lives that make themselves meaningful. On my New Year Day post  I tell the story of Victor Frankl, a survivor of  Auschwitz, who illustrates just that. 

Getting stuck in a cliche makes my world small.  Challenging cliches makes for possibilities for new experiences and new understanding.  I pray that I have the courage to make and meet such challenges and experiences.