"I do not think it means what you think it means"

What makes something new? Is it age? Is it care? Can you truly make something old new again?  I was having this debate with several people the other day. Some feel it’s like when you buy a car – once you’ve driven it once, it’s old.  Others felt there was some grey area here. We went round and round. There was one person who kept insisting that their car was new. Now this car is several years old, it has several dents and scratches and a lot of miles on it. So why does this person insist it’s new? Simple, because it’s treated with kid gloves. It gets cleaned weekly, if not more often. No one gets to touch it but him. And heaven forbid you get anywhere near it. Yup, lay a finger on that puppy and there will be heck to pay. Been there, got that t-shirt, believe you me. Another person felt that because he had restored a car it was new. Right, he had rebuilt the engine, slapped a new coat of paint on a 30 year old car and voila – it was new. Uhm, well, I’ve seen that car. You can see the old paint under the new – trust me, no one would ever agree with him on this one. I think one of the problems here are there are just one too many ways to use the word ‘new’. It could mean unique, unusual, different. It could mean something you only recently got – thus it’s ‘new’ to you. It could be something which has been brought back to life, remade or restyle – like a rebuilt car, a remodeled house, or a re-imagined life. Or it truly could be something new, as in it was created only a moment ago or a newborn baby. This is how so many arguments start – we have no idea what someone else means. We hear them say something and are sure we understand. But in fact, their meaning isn’t even close to what we think. Remember Vizzini from ‘Princess Bride’? He keeps saying “Inconceivable!” during the movie and finally someone calls him on it. Inigo states, “I do not think it means what you think it means.” Simple as that. Yup, think the next time I see these two people, I'm going to call them out on having 'new' cars. Tell them the same thing Inigo did to Vizzini, because, yeah, they don't know what they are talking about. Or I could be nice, let it drop, smile and nod as they go on and on about their 'new' cars. After all, the world won't end if I let them keep up this particular fantasy...