Apprehension and Comprehension

There is a vast difference between apprehension and comprehension. The problem is that these days, they are too often mistaken for each other.

Apprehension is what happens when you make contact with something, most often through your senses. Comprehension is when your mind wraps around something and understands it.

These days, with soundbites and summaries, abstracts and action plans, everyone thinks they 'get it' when all that's happened is that 'it' has got them. But that's nothing new. As it says in Ecclesiastes chapter 8:

When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth — there are those who do not sleep by day or night — then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.

Even with a 24-hour work cycle or news cycle, there is too much going on. The sheer complexity of life defeats all attempts to observe or understand it all. When we have gained the whole world, we have gained nothing. It is all a striving after the wind.

That is why the message of Ecclesiastes is that people should try their best without burning out. There is no point wasting your time on earth when you don't know if what you do is of any good. You can't comprehend it all.

There are thus two kinds of advice given in that book: 'whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might', and 'enjoy life while you are young'. It's all about balance.

Get it?