Why was the symbol below chosen for the command key on Apple computer keyboards?

(Engadget)

We better call fictional Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon for guidance.

Inspiration for a quest of symbolic proportions is set!

According to a ShortList’s article titled “The story of the Mac command key symbol is way more fascinating than you’d expect,” the moment of truth for the mysterious command key symbol is as follows:

“Our bitmap artist Susan Kare had a comprehensive international symbol dictionary and she leafed through it, looking for an appropriate symbol that was distinctive, attractive and had at least something to do with the concept of a menu command.

“Finally she came across a floral symbol that was used in Sweden to indicate an interesting feature or attraction in a campground… Twenty years later, even in OS X, the Macintosh still has a little bit of a Swedish campground in it.”

This symbol, as the article details, is revealed to be the layout of a 13th-century castle in Sweden from a bird’s-eye view. And while not a quest for divine revelation and consequence like ‘The DaVinci Code,’ it sure was interesting to learn about the symbol at the command of Apple’s keyboard.

And why does this matter?

As the clip above showcases, symbols are in front of us in countless forms and shapes. Most of the time, these symbols go unnoticed. As Ferries Bueller attested, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Truth, courtesy of John Hughes.

Our personal perception impacts our moment-moment thinking, contributing clarity and sometimes cloudiness in various situations. Our mind will see what it wants to see.

The question is what will you want to see tomorrow?