Understand and feel

[ian2]

Today we try not to take for granted the things we almost always take for granted. We try, if only in that brief pause before the eating begins, to see through the well-worn patterns of our lives to what lies behind them. In other words, we try to understand how very rich we are, whether we feel very rich or not.

My question is the blue sentence. If I paraphrase it into "whether we feel we are rich or not, we try to understand that we are very rich", does it convey the meaning? The whole paragraph is about being satisfied with what we have. I have a problem with "feel" rich and "understand" rich. If we feel not rich, we still try to understand how rich we are. Is that right? Thanks.

[mykwyner]

When you said "...satisfied with what we have," I knew that you understood the meaning of the passage. We should be thankful for what we have (understand how rich we are) not bitter about what we don't have (not feel rich).

[ian2]

Originally Posted by mykwyner

When you said "...satisfied with what we have," I knew that you understood the meaning of the passage. We should be thankful for what we have (understand how rich we are) not bitter about what we don't have (not feel rich).

Thanks so much. But my question seems more specific. See the original sentence:

Today we try not to take for granted the things we almost always take for granted. We try, if only in that brief pause before the eating begins, to see through the well-worn patterns of our lives to what lies behind them. In other words, we try to understand how very rich we are, whether we feel very rich or not.

Whether you feel rich, or not rich, you still try to understand you are rich.
In other words, you feel rich, you try to understand you are rich or
you don't feel rich, you still try to understand you are rich.

So what I want to know is the word "understand". Apparently, it's not the feeling. When one understands something, understanding involves reason. When you feel, it's just your emotional response. In other words, I was trying to contrast "feel" and "understand". I sometimes hairsplit for my purpose, as I need to say the same thing in a foreign language and I have to be able to paraphrase a sentence. Thanks in advance.

[hscadore]

we try to realize?

realize: 1.to grasp or understand clearly. (wwwDOTdictionaryDOTcom)


[i am not a teacher]