Attempt to describe a bottle of Coca Cola ends in something else.

I'm trying to learn how to describe things, so I decided to try describing an empty bottle of Mexican Coca-Cola (made in real sugar, comes in a glass bottle.) And then my thoughts changed.

It’s strange. You don’t usually see them empty. Usually there’s something to look at inside. A color, really, that you can’t really describe off the top of your head. It’s the kind of thing you speak the name of and naturally expect others to know what you’re talking about. The funny thing is, they don’t know how to describe it either. As if hiding from their own ignorance, they will latch onto you and your words, hoping you bear a more illuminated view. Otherwise, they seek to hide their own ignorance from you, for they still believe you know what you’re speaking of. It’s like a commonly-known secret, but everyone save for yourself is in on it. Ask anyone to describe Coke, and be bombarded by the sheer lack of actual description. Then again, what isn’t that true for? How can you break anything down into its basest of components and still expect to be able to describe what it is? What is glass, when one hopes to view it as a collection of particles unimaginably small? It stops being glass, it becomes something else entirely. This is, perhaps, what people mean by “See the big picture.”

Author's Note

How would you describe Coca-Cola to someone? Is it easier than I'm making it?

How can I make my ideas more clear? Do you feel that there are even any ideas here?

UPDATE: Included the "post-midnight" tag to denote this as a writing done...post-midnight. Yeah.

Reviews

[Veronica Ostling-Hirsch..]

This is very insightful, an truly opens the eye as to what the meaning of the "big picture" is, though, as far as actually describing the bottle, the physical appearance itself isn't truly written in a more tangible form. What does it feel like in my hand when I hold it? What sound does it make when it's tapped? What happens when it is thrown and broken? Allowing the reader to "see" that object is crucial. If they cannot imagine it it's hard to hook their attention. The piece seems to veer off into a tangent, and the mood is changed as well. I was left wondering where we "meet" the bottle. But as far as deep thinking goes, this definitely conveys a clear idea of trying and failing to describe things one doesn't truly understand. It is good, and I may say, the prose is admirably well done.