On grokking...

[miladycarol]

winnett asked this morning if anything can be truly grokked. I was inspired to respond with the following. Does anyone have a comment or difference of opinion?

Groking something is rather personal, I suspect. I don't ever use "grok" to explain an understanding of a subject, like dinosaurs, because I don't think I could ever know enough about them and their era to truly grok them. It's too vast and I'm only a hobbyist. But I can grok love, pain, desire... I grok them from my perspective and from my experience. If I truly feel I have experienced a migraine, and I do, then when someone tells me they have a migraine, I grok how they feel. It can be a totally different experience for them. Their migraine may be in a place that mine never occurred, but I have been there on that level and that style of pain. I grok it. I can completely empathize.

I usually use the word in association with universal human emotions and experiences. When you tell me how excited you are about seeing a new bird, I can grok that. I'm not an active birder, but when I've been to a new area and seen a live cockatiel out in the wild, it was my version of the same excited and appreciative feeling. Or, perhaps I could even substitute it for the feeling of seeing a trillium in the wild. It's that same spreading of joy, warmth and excitement throughout the body. I grok that.

Any comments? Criticisms? Anecdotes?

Comments

And I will say....

[kadoofuloffer.livejournal.com]

I can grok that. My opinion of the word is much like yours. It is kinda a slang word for empathy, and has more to do with emotional and physical aspects of human kind than a true mental understanding.

[lurkitty.livejournal.com]

This is so wierd. I had this conversation the other day. In Stranger in a Strange Land (source of the word), Jubal Harshaw first figures out Michael is telepathic because Jubal asks him to scratch his back, and Michael scratches where it itches. That, for me, is the essence of grokking. The sharing of sensation, thought, and understanding.

I have shared this sort fleetingly with people many times. It is rare that I have experienced it on a consistent basis, though it is possible with work to open to each other in such a manner.

[indiecowboy.livejournal.com]

Grokking is something very deep and subtle.

You're right. It illicits complete understanding.

I think I don't grok ANYTHING. The only thing I know completely everything about is me...and even then its iffy.

Can we understand EVERYTHING?

I don't think so.

[lurkitty.livejournal.com]

Migraineur to migraineur, I had a nasty one yesterday. Daily Topomax has stopped the "storms", but once in awhile I will get a bad one. I hope it's gone, but I'm still photophobic today. Need ice pack and cave, but reality says work.

Thanks for grokking *grin*.

[miladycarol.livejournal.com]

My worst migraine was a cluster of migrainus majorus (my term -- as opposed to the minor migraines that do not require me to lie in dark rooms with my eyes closed and dancing lights to entertain me) that lasted 3 months. I couldn't just take the time off, so I had to work through it. Under flourescent lights. On shiny metal jewelry. I bought the darkest safety goggles I could find and stopped to throw up often. My entire world hurt.

[lurkitty.livejournal.com]

I empathize. I started with honest-to-goodness cluster headaches -- the kind where you want to pluck your own eye out with a stick to make it go away. Then they went away all of a sudden for ten years. Then I had migraines, which are less searingly painful, but longer lasting. I agree, the visuals are entertaining sometimes.

The storms that drove me to daily meds were months of migraine activity three and four times a week. The pain could be coped with. I find the confusion very annoying... I find it hard to focus.

I have a wonderful pair of dark sunglasses made to my prescription in Thailand....