At one time, handbaskets were common. Briefcases (cases originally designed to hold legal briefs) have basically replaced them other than for the use of the term, “going to hell in a handbasket.” Both handbaskets and briefcases are small and relatively easy to carry.
The saying about going to hell in a “handbasket,” implied a quick and easy trip, as in “Hey, we’ll pack an overnight bag, and go.” I’m not sure how “hell” became the principal destination for those carrying handbaskets, although it is easy to see how lawyers and their briefcases became associated with legal difficulties.
Language provides a symbolic representation of reality. The word “sunrise,” for example, is not an actual sunrise, but is a metaphor that communicates the idea of “sunrise.” Those who speak English have a sense of what that means even if they encounter the word after the sun has “set.” Language is, in fact, a “map” that describes the territory, and we need to remember that The map is not the territory. The sun doesn’t “rise,” the earth rotates, which changes our perception.
One of the principal causes of problems in the world is the difficulty in getting people to see, understand, and appreciate differences in metaphors. I grew up in California and learned to think of rain at 40 degrees as “cold.” Then I spent my first year in college in Ohio, where winter temperatures ventured below zero with snow and ice. I didn’t like the cold and transferred to a school in Southern California for my sophomore year.
Eventually, of course, I learned to adjust to cold weather and currently live in Michigan. With “global climate change,” however, winter isn’t what it used to be (and may be again). My “cold” and your “cold” are probably not the same. The farther we are apart in terms of where we live and have lived, the greater the difference in our perceptions of cold.
Those of us who are old enough to have seen the black & white film, Nanook of the North, have some sense how members of an Inuit tribe adapted to the frigid temperatures of the northern environment. Most of us have doubtless also seen films of life in the South Sea islands or equatorial Africa, where anything below 70F is considered “cold.”
A long time ago, Morris Massey clarified the ways in which what you are now is based on What You Are Now Is Where You Were When. Even when people share the same basic language (French, German, English, etc.), their experiences of “the territory” will be different. Males, for example, do not live in the same “reality” as females. Adults and children do not share the same “reality.”
For all of human history, the world has been “shrinking” metaphorically, with people being exposed to a wide variety of cultural differences. Such encounters often resulted in wars. France and England, for example, were separated only by the English Channel, and their relatively close distance and significant cultural differences, led to centuries of warfare.
Although we typically take it for granted, meaningful communication is not a simple process. Even when people share a gender and language, they will have sufficient differences in perceptions of and beliefs about “reality” that distort their communication. The best communicators remember that and take it into account. An old saying is, “When you assume, you make an ass out of you and me.” At the same time, however, we need to recognize that we can’t not assume.
The best we can do is recognize the limitations of language and ask questions when we aren’t sure what someone else means. Your idea of a “nice day” and mine are going to be different. Sometimes the differences are so small as to be inconsequential, and other times they are sufficiently significant that they can lead to “knock-down, drag-out” fights.
Because there will always be some differences in perception and expression, we need to learn to respect the those differences and value them for the ways in which they make life richer and more meaningful. Arguing about such differences puts us on the “road to Hell” in a handbasket.