What Words Mean to Me: a new Hive

I have just recently been trying to make “sense” of how words have taken on a significant difference when they are part of social media and then I read @Auroras Sima say in her interview with @Don Kerr: “It´s a paradox: The technical ability to share our thoughts with more people than ever faster than ever, actually led to sharing less. The safest way to share our beliefs is to use a meme.”

Using the words of others through quotes appears throughout our posts and shares. This led me to wonder; can we use the words of others without contributing our interpretation or what those words “mean” to us?

After Auroras’s interview, I next read Don’s interview with @Pascal Derrien and I found myself writing in the comments, to each; My favorite line has to be…

Sure we use the quotes to support our thoughts, points of view or ideas, but that doesn’t really tell us what significance those words, or even the person who said those words, mean to us. 

In this way, I was inspired to start this Hive, What Words Mean to Me: whenever you come across a meme; “a humorous image, video, piece of text” or quote, please write about the meaning and significance that it holds for you.

I will start us off:

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. - Albert Einstein

For me this holds all the following qualities; adaptation, awareness, choice, and potential. Everything depends on what “meaning” we give to the experience, event or situation. I appreciate that Einstein was able to “see” the big picture.

This quote means to me that difficulty does not need to weigh us down, stop us from moving out of the difficulty itself, and/or prevent us from being able to learn from the experience.

Einstein often spoke of the importance of using our imagination, our ability to imagine, and this quote for me has an unspoken part; when in difficulty, imagine the opportunity that lies there waiting to be found.

I consider Einstein an integrator; he was a scientist, a musician and a thinker/philosopher. I have never seen a quote of his that doesn’t integrate diverse concepts. As a result, he was able to envision how a difficulty can hold an opportunity; he didn’t separate the two experiences.