Meaning is made by the receiver

Stand in front of a Rothko and you might just see a block of paint. Most people walk right past. The painting doesn't hand you anything—what you get out of it is what you bring to it.

So pause. What does it make you feel? What does it remind you of? That's attunement: how are you receiving it. And what you make of it can be completely off from what the artist intended, and both can be true.

Shakespeare said nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Life is always going to be life. How you interpret it, and how you act on that, is the life you actually live. The meaning was never only in the thing. You make it in how you receive it.