What is a sign?

I found C.S. Pierce’s ‘Grand Logic’ over-generalizing and too matter of fact. I suppose that’s what happens when you try to divide the entire conscious experience into three universal categories. Three states of mind, interest, signs, and likenesses defining our existence. I feel confined when reading the absolute rules of how I am to understand something. Even though I see applications for categorizing logical thought, C.S. Pierce doesn’t leave room for any exceptions with statements like, ‘…pictures alone, —pure likenesses, —can never convey the slightest information’. I disagree with this. People derive simple information and the deepest meaning from everyday likenesses. A random example: Wow that grease stain looks like the Virgin Mary, therefore, this McDonalds bag must be holy. Another point of confusion was the difference between feeling and Feeling. ‘As the most rudimentary sense of Reaction involves two states of Feeling, so it will be found that the most rudimentary Thought involves three states of Feeling.’ If I’m paraphrasing this correctly: people are not able to think about one feeling without that feeling reacting with another. There are many examples of people focusing their thoughts on one feeling. Singular thoughts develop knowledge founded in ignorance, which is a common way to form a bias. I think it is necessary to challenge generalizations to understand why they exist and how our human consciousness can fit so neatly into groups of three.