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Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001), "Last Chance to See"
Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it's just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it.
David Sedaris, interview in Louisville Courier-Journal, June 5, 2005
This is patently absurd; but whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.
Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970) British author, mathematician, & philosopher
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Have you ever been in the car with several of your family members or friends and driven by something strange? Bear with me – I do have a moral.
It happened that this weekend that I was in the car with my husband and father, on our way to celebrate my dad’s birthday with a day of target practice. As we pulled out of Dad’s subdivision, we passed this young girl who was maybe ten years old. She was a chubby girl in a bright red leotard over blue tights with socks and tennis shoes on her feet. She was standing by the road posed with her feet in a martial arts position, arms raised slightly over shoulder height baring her armpits. One hand was posed across her face, fingers spread, and the other was outstretched towards passing traffic. Her face was twisted in a grimace that bared her teeth.
Her young friend was standing ten feet behind her, laughing hysterically.
We drove by, confused all of us, but it didn’t take long for the comedian in all of us to kick in. Almost in unison, we each had a one-liner.
“Behold! The Armpit Avenger come to save us all!” I said.
“I knew that toxic waste dump nearby would come back to haunt us…” my dad mentioned.
And well… my husband’s comment was too awful to mention in a newsletter.  It had to do something with the mentally diseased.
My point is that we all saw the exact same thing but our minds translated it all very differently. We instantaneously meshed what our senses were telling us with past experiences, education, media, and even prejudices to translate what we saw into something that made sense. Because we all have learned different things, lived different lives, seen different movies, read different books, and had very different experiences we all saw something vastly different.
I know you all have been in similar situations. Maybe one of you found something funny that the rest took offense at. Maybe you all read something and thought very different things about it. Maybe this phenomenon is the basis for philosophical discussions, political debates, and differences in religious beliefs.
I believe this is why at times it is so hard to tell a story and have someone else translate it the same way. When you tell about how your <insert favorite whipping boy here> was so incredibly mean to you today, you want your listener or reader to feel your anger at how you were abused. When you write about meeting your first love for the first time, you want your recipient to feel emotion. As we all know, it doesn’t always work that way. I remember telling about how someone was mean to me and having the recipient tell me that I had handled things wrong. Maybe I was. Maybe I had seen things wrong based on my own experiences. But somehow, in the images I evoked, the translation of how I felt and the message I meant to convey got lost.
As artists and authors, we have to strive to make our words translate against a person’s own life and make sense. That is why classic stories are told again and again. The images invoked make sense to the person who is reading it and interpreting it. They are able to see the same thing and feel the same thing from the same words.
And sometimes, when the author means to weave a truly complex tale or poem, there are many different meanings depending on the way it is interpreted. It has the power to evoke emotion, but we aren’t told outright what that emotion should be so we mesh it against our own lives and see what comes out. This is why some stories have no endings – it is for the reader to decide the fate of the characters.
Now imagine through all of this, you as an author have characters who are based on humans. Humans who see things vastly different from the way other humans see things. We take our characters and put them in a situation where they all will interpret differently depending on their pasts and personalities. Think about it for a while when you are writing your next tale and consider examining the way each individual would see events and how their reactions would differ based on their translation. This has the ability to create a wonderfully complex story – and if you don’t show it all to your reader at once, an incredible mystery.
After we got home that same day, we were outside talking before we carried our bags in the house and heard the male next-door neighbor yell at the female next-door neighbor. He was so loud, we heard it through the walls – but this is all we heard:
“I can’t live your life. I can’t live Jimmy’s life. I can only live my life, and darnit, I’m going to live it!”
I bet we all have very different ideas about what had happened, what they were fighting about, and who Jimmy was. I also wonder what she thought hearing it. I wonder if it was an appropriate response to their situation. I have no idea myself, but I do have some ideas to use it (shamelessly) in a story.
So what do you experience around you? Why do you view it that way? What images can you find in everyday life that someone will interpret differently? How can this shape your writing? This next week, think on it for a while and don’t be shameless in snatching pieces of your experiences for your work as an author. 
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For Authors: September 13, 2006 Issue [#1265]
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