Charloft Thursday: Knowing & Understanding
Have you ever had an epiphany? Tell us about it, or, if you’d like, tell us a story.
Charlie had thought his epiphany had come yesterday. At the time it had felt like one. The sweeping understanding of everything, the sudden clarity, it had felt like an epiphany. He was wrong though. What he had thought as an epiphany was really just a realization and this morning he could see how different those two things were.
A realization didn’t change your life. A realization was knowing without understanding. Now he both knew and understood. He had been wrong when he thought his epiphany was knowing what Rayborn meant by “always” and that his friend was still really his friend. He had been wrong when he thought his epiphany was that Roman never wanted the money, he wanted the respect, he wanted to be “kiddo”. The conspiracy, the reality, all of that he had known yesterday. Today, this morning, this moment he understood.
Epiphany was the wrong word. What he had were epiphanies, a long string of epiphany after epiphany that brought him to this moment, to one more epiphany, the final one, the one that mattered most. The one where he woke up, reached out and found her reaching back. Their fingers tangled together like they had wanted when she had walked towards him in the orange grove. It was all so clear, so simple and so intense he thought he might break apart before he got to fully, truly appreciate the power of this moment.
“Crews,” she said, soft, scared, reaching out as much as her hand had.
“Just breathe,” he told her, confident and sure. As long as they breathed, whatever the moment, whatever the epiphany, they would get through.
Charlie Crews’ greatest epiphany was not a moment, it wasn’t Zen either. His greatest epiphany was mathematical.
His greatest epiphany was that he (you) and (plus) Reese (another) together (equals) was love (one).
Charlie had thought his epiphany had come yesterday. At the time it had felt like one. The sweeping understanding of everything, the sudden clarity, it had felt like an epiphany. He was wrong though. What he had thought as an epiphany was really just a realization and this morning he could see how different those two things were.
A realization didn’t change your life. A realization was knowing without understanding. Now he both knew and understood. He had been wrong when he thought his epiphany was knowing what Rayborn meant by “always” and that his friend was still really his friend. He had been wrong when he thought his epiphany was that Roman never wanted the money, he wanted the respect, he wanted to be “kiddo”. The conspiracy, the reality, all of that he had known yesterday. Today, this morning, this moment he understood.
Epiphany was the wrong word. What he had were epiphanies, a long string of epiphany after epiphany that brought him to this moment, to one more epiphany, the final one, the one that mattered most. The one where he woke up, reached out and found her reaching back. Their fingers tangled together like they had wanted when she had walked towards him in the orange grove. It was all so clear, so simple and so intense he thought he might break apart before he got to fully, truly appreciate the power of this moment.
“Crews,” she said, soft, scared, reaching out as much as her hand had.
“Just breathe,” he told her, confident and sure. As long as they breathed, whatever the moment, whatever the epiphany, they would get through.
Charlie Crews’ greatest epiphany was not a moment, it wasn’t Zen either. His greatest epiphany was mathematical.
His greatest epiphany was that he (you) and (plus) Reese (another) together (equals) was love (one).