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?