What do you see? Does it frighten you?
One day I was walking down a street with one of my missionary companions at dusk and we noticed the moon was big. I said, “tomorrow we’ll have full moon”, she said, “I think it’s already full”. “Well -I tried to convince her, it’s missing just a bit, one more day, that’s it.” “No, no -she asserted, it’s full already!” The following month she received a new pair of glasses and soon discovered that her feet were farther from her head, she felt taller and some other significant changes. We saw the moon again and we remembered the first incident. She accepted, “you were probably right then”. People see what they can. Some can see very far away and high above. Some see their environment in blurry, bigger, smaller or distorted images. Some can only see shadows of the objects surrounding them. Others can only see what they have in front of their eyes. Everyone has his or her own version of what it is.
“Grown-ups always need to have things explained.”
Similarly, people often perceive their world, relationships and circumstances under the lenses of their own context, values, assumptions and prior experiences (their ability to understand). They go as far as just accepting what is understandable and conceivable for them. “They must be discriminating against me (interpretation) because I’m green looking” (context). “It must be that he tells this to me (interpretation) because he trusts me” (assumption). “She must lust after me (interpretation) because I’m so handsome” (assumption). And many of you certainly remember how Don Quijote took the windmills for an army, a countrywoman for a noble lady, and a barber's washbowl for a helmet among other misinterpretations of reality.
Our lives are full of sophisms like these, reasoning on false premises. Is there a way to have a sound reason always and never get it wrong? I’d like to know how to actually see what is true, things like they are and not as we see them. It will solve our problems of faith, trust in people, decision making, and knowing the world… the universe. Do we have the capacity of seeing right? How this ability would change our human condition?
One day I was walking down a street with one of my missionary companions at dusk and we noticed the moon was big. I said, “tomorrow we’ll have full moon”, she said, “I think it’s already full”. “Well -I tried to convince her, it’s missing just a bit, one more day, that’s it.” “No, no -she asserted, it’s full already!” The following month she received a new pair of glasses and soon discovered that her feet were farther from her head, she felt taller and some other significant changes. We saw the moon again and we remembered the first incident. She accepted, “you were probably right then”. People see what they can. Some can see very far away and high above. Some see their environment in blurry, bigger, smaller or distorted images. Some can only see shadows of the objects surrounding them. Others can only see what they have in front of their eyes. Everyone has his or her own version of what it is.
“Grown-ups always need to have things explained.”
Similarly, people often perceive their world, relationships and circumstances under the lenses of their own context, values, assumptions and prior experiences (their ability to understand). They go as far as just accepting what is understandable and conceivable for them. “They must be discriminating against me (interpretation) because I’m green looking” (context). “It must be that he tells this to me (interpretation) because he trusts me” (assumption). “She must lust after me (interpretation) because I’m so handsome” (assumption). And many of you certainly remember how Don Quijote took the windmills for an army, a countrywoman for a noble lady, and a barber's washbowl for a helmet among other misinterpretations of reality.
Our lives are full of sophisms like these, reasoning on false premises. Is there a way to have a sound reason always and never get it wrong? I’d like to know how to actually see what is true, things like they are and not as we see them. It will solve our problems of faith, trust in people, decision making, and knowing the world… the universe. Do we have the capacity of seeing right? How this ability would change our human condition?
3 comments:
we wouldn't be human anymore. we'd be Gods.
Aren't we here to become One?
You are so precious and a wise soul. I love reading your observations. You are astonishingly acute. You are in my thoughts, check out your front porch today....
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