(I don't know if this is the right part of the boards for this question. Hip Forums doesn't seem to have a general questions section.) What is the exact meaning of the statement, can't see the forest for the trees? I have a vague idea what it means. But I am not sure. I know it is often quoted, but apparently rarely explained. Please give me a serious answer. This forum might be my last resort to answering this question.
I think it's a bit like being snow-blind, i.e. everything looks the same when you're in the forest so you can't really see what you're looking for.
big picture obscured by details. always thought that kind of self explanatory, but i guess if someone grew up in a city, and never saw a forest, you might say, "can't see the city for the buildings"? it also works the other way, and does so a lot more often, not being able to see the trees for the forest. the shortcut thinking of lumping together the larger picture and missing the finer details by doing so. that might not sound as important, which is probably why so often it is done, but every hear the saying: "its the little things that get you", or "the devil is in the details"? if you only see the forest or the city, and not the individual trees or buildings, well in the forest you'll just bump your nose into a tree, in the city you're likely to get run over.
Words only have demonstrable meaning in specific contexts. If I point at a rock and call it a rock for someone who doesn't speak English, that is a way of demonstrating the meaning of the word. Without the greater context of the forest, individual trees become meaningless, but we tend to bury our noses in the bark of particular trees, because the smallest pond can sometimes shed invaluable light upon the Big Picture. Wherever you go, there you are, and no matter how compelling any of the individual thoughts and feelings you might have, nonetheless, they only have meaning when we embrace the greater context, or the greater truth. When we no longer make distinctions between who we are and what we are doing, we become one with the context of our unfolding lives, self-actualized poetry in motion. Yogi Berra is a good example, as is a toddler falling adorably on their butt.
This is the most thorough and well explained meaning of the phrase I have ever read. Right on man, I appreciate it.
Sure, I'm writing a book on modern physics, natural philosophy, and primitive tribal potty humor. Its all based on mindless pattern matching, and my hope is to spare others the necessity of having to shuffle all the potty humor metaphors, which requires about 12 years of hard work, and decades of study.
