To understand and to comprehend. While the two seem almost synonymous with one another, someone who truly comprehends the meaning of the two words could spend days describing the differences. While this may be the case, the very idea of perceptions and viewpoints encompasses the concept of differentiating the words. Allow me to elaborate using one very specific example. Myself.
My name is Lilith. In that simple statement, my explanation begins. I understand my name. Essentially, it is a group of sounds that can be produced with a person’s mouth to represent me; just as any other word is used to represent some other object or concept. While this is understood, I should know better than any that it is not comprehended. When others refer to me as Lilith, all their minds are capable of doing is linking the word with the very idea of me, and my existence, with the words preceding my name and with the words following my name. However, in order to comprehend the word, their mind must encompass me. My ideals, my actions, my intentions, my hopes, my dreams.
When I was a child, since before I could remember, I’ve been living on my own in the city. I was left with nothing but my name barely in my memory. Only my first name, making any hope of finding out who I am or where I came from shot to the ground with logic and reason. Even logic and reason, however, are difficult to differentiate without the implications of perceptions and viewpoints. While living on the streets, I was forced to do things for my own survival. While most could see this as a viable course of action, it was one man by the name of Cornelius Blackwater, professor Blackwater as he was known, that had a slightly different course for me. He adopted me and, once he understood how intelligent I turned out to be, he put me through college. The people there were no more intelligent than the people on the street, but I was promised more knowledge. None of them comprehended me though.
This is where my concept of perceptions and viewpoints become a huge factor in my explanation. While I understand who I am, I do not comprehend it. My soul, my very being, wants no more than to know who I am. I have no name. I strive so hard to comprehend the world around me, yet my heart is blackened by ignorance. People around me perceive me as a genius just as well as they perceive me as evil, but they only understand what I do. They do not comprehend why I do it. However, telling the poor ignorant souls this information only reinforces their perception that they are correct. While you can explain to them anything you want, for as long as you want, such as the difference between understanding something and comprehending it, people will still maintain that they are the same. Everything in the universe, even coming down to whether you understand it or comprehend it, is a matter of perception. All I want is to comprehend myself, whether you understand that or not.
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Lilith has no recollection of where she was born or to whom. She was abandoned on the street at an age no older than a toddler, her parents leaving her as a street rat. Quickly, she took to the streets and easily learned the standard protocol of surviving there. In fact, she proved to be more cunning and quick-thinking than any of the others. She taught herself to read and her genius quickly outran her as she began stealing books more than the food or money she needed to live, often taking them away from the city into the nearby hills to read and learn.
When she became older, about the equivalent of a teenager in human years, she was caught stealing a book from a library by a professor at the local academy. This man's name was Cornelius Blackwater. Finding Lilith's interest in reading despite being a street rat astounding, he decided to take her in. It didn't take long before he realized he had a brilliant thinker on his hands, but Lilith seemed obsessed with knowing everything. Even more so, she seemed dangerously obsessed with one piece of information. Who she was and who her parents were. "I can learn anything there is, but how do I learn something so... Abstract?" she would often say.
In hopes of satisfying her need for knowledge and understanding, Cornelius Blackwater enrolled her in the academy in which he taught. She quickly took to all subjects to a point of absolute boredom for her, but there was one subject that intrigued her more than any other; Alchemy. She would constantly recite her formulas, even coming up with new ones and brewing potions in her off time. Often this included potions she was not supposed make, but she had her ways of hiding her work. While testing components in class, even, she ate the still beating heart of a small rodent giving her the nickname 'Hearteater' among her peers. Considering it was the closest thing to a second name she's ever had, she started using it. It was preferable to Blackwater in her book, even though her adoptive family would claim Blackwater is her last name.
Her cruelty when discussing her heritage and obsession therein led to many problems in school. Eventually a bully within the college made the wrong remark to her about it and she murdered him then and there. She has since left the town in search of what she believes to be the ultimate truth, traveling all around the world.
