The Message Doesn't Change - It Is You Who Changes

What do you see?

Have you ever seen the movie The Matrix?

I remember taking one of many media classes at the university and writing an assignment on a form of popular media (book, movie, etc.) of my choosing.

I chose to write the paper on this movie.

After reading and grading all the reports, the professor announced something that he had never experienced before.

He explained how every year he gives this assignment and sometimes a popular movie is written about by several students, and their papers are usually quite similar.

He said, however, that this time something was different.

Five other people besides myself had written their paper on this particular movie.

But that wasn't the difference...it was a very popular movie.

The difference was that six different interpretations were rendered from this single movie.

This is what was unique to him.

Six people, having viewed the same movie, had six very different interpretations.

If it wasn't for the name of the movie, the six reports could have been speaking of six different movies.

I personally latched onto the biblical themes referenced in the movie, which to me were quite obvious and explicit.

I was in my later 20's at the time, and I had been a part of a very dynamic and active church in my early 20's.

I had learned much in studying the Bible and reflecting on its various themes in real life, through personal experience; the intimate walk with Christ.

I had yet to reflect on the political themes in the movie, for I had yet to live much life.

Years later, having been more involved in the world, working and growing and failing, did I 'see' the other aspects explained in the film, now seemingly explicitly.

A message is interpreted according to an individual's point of view and their current place on their journey.

A different interpretation isn't always 'wrong' (they can be, but not always).

A different interpretation is usually viewed as 'wrong' according to our perception.

The teacher, in this case, is the one able to 'see' past the perceived differences and is possibly able to understand not only the movie (and its variable of messages), but also how humans interpret the world according to their personal landscape.

This is the beauty of life...and also the crux of this world.

Philosophy and religious books are replete with the phenomena of interpretation.

On one side of this type of double edged sword, a person can interpret any particular thing in one manner, and the same experience, or message, or written something, can be interpreted vastly different by someone else.

And where difference is perceived, people are unfortunately apt to interpret opposition, and thus the early sparks of confrontation...war...death...the patterns of this world.

But this doesn't have to be 'the way' one approaches different interpretations or difference of opinions.

There is a single Way, and that Way is found by many people with many different 'ways' of interpreting the particular details of the Way.

It is the language of the heart which deciphers how what seems like a variety of 'ways', is actually the same unspoken language of the heart.

Yet not all hearts are free.

I'm not saying every single 'way' leads towards the Way.

I am saying that our unique interpretations are not always at odds with another's interpretations, for not all of us are at the same place on this journey.

And although not all speak the same language of the heart, those of us that do can 'see' past the different interpretations and recognize that the Message has come clearly through ourselves and those others, despite our different interpretations.