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

[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.