The word Processing has recently come into common parlance with a new meaning, having to do with our human response to life. Maybe you’ve heard it used that way, or used it that way yourself.

I suppose processing started out as a manufacturing term, perhaps in the mid 1900s. Processing milk to make butter, or processing iron to make steel. More recently it was adapted into computer terminology. You may have seen a message on your screen that says “processing…” For computers, it means, I’m taking in that information, crunching the numbers, and will have an answer for you when I’m done.

Lately, we humans say, “I’m processing that information”, or simply, “I’m processing.” So what does that really mean?