Understanding's amnesty

Understanding is an amnesty deal.

There is something inherent

in the presence of understanding

that seems to exude self-assuredness.

It is as if understanding

makes one safe

from all the liabilities

of presumed ignorance.

It is as if referential knowing

has at its disposal

some sort of leverage

that immunes one

from the aftereffects

of what “predominate” understanding

has become

as the consuming attention savior

of the now.

How did this happen?

It seems over the course

of the last few decades,

understanding has become

an implied form

of a socially acceptable means

called ‘distancing’.

Understanding implies

nothing of action or response,

just the potential to appear

to objectively intercede or interact

with the world around.

Understanding has an assumed handle

on temporality’s siege.

Understanding permits a self-exclusion

from these subjective domains

of influence

that would otherwise put one at affect.

Understanding is more than

just a knowledgeable status.

Understanding implies also

the workings of a situation,

and an operational capacity

to be functional in that setting

but deemed with restraint.

Understanding has become

a method of absentia.

Understanding infers

a world of avoidance.

It is better to understand

where not to be

and what not to do.

Seek the world of predictability

and learn to effectively control it.

It may even discreetly pronounce

be “street smart”

versus be “college educated”

as these two distinct methods

of understanding

thematically dominate

the controlling of now. . . .