Another topic worth reflecting upon is “Vision.” What vision? you may ask. “The thing that makes me see?” Exactly. The “thing” that makes you “see.” You are used to the way you see the world around you and only rarely do you wonder about it. But it would be interesting for you to find out “how” you usually see. Are there different ways of seeing? You may ask. Absolutely. Let us start with the most usual one. You look in front of you, you perceive what is there while, at the same time, you are also able to use the peripheral sight, if you need to. Therefore, while looking ahead, you also have the perception of what is going on laterally, to both your right and your left. You are thus in possession of a useful tool that makes you aware of a wider range of objects, people and events, beside the ones that are in front of your face.
At this point you might say that, for a person whose eyes are functioning well enough, this is the normal experience. It is, indeed. The only problem is that sometimes you are so engrossed in what is ahead of you, that you become totally unaware of what might be on the sides. You behave as if you were wearing “blinders,” a pair of small leather screens attached to a horse’s bridle to prevent it from seeing sideways and behind. It could also be something that impedes someone to gain full understanding of a situation. Could this be your case? The horse walks straight, perceiving nothing of what is around, and so do you. When you have a conviction, you don’t allow yourself to take any other possible idea into consideration. You see only what is in front of your nose, you never even think of turning your head sideways in order to find out if someone else is there, if another chance is available, if another opinion could be evaluated.
I realized a third possible case during a bus trip. I was on a long-distance journey, traveling on a very comfortable bus. Sitting next to a wide window, I was enjoying the view: Trees, fields, farmhouses and...cars. All of a sudden I had the impression that the cars coming in the opposite direction where moving in the “wrong” way, that they were on the wrong side of the motorway. “How can this be?” I wondered, surprised. Then I realized my mistake. The cars I was seeing, moving in the incorrect direction, were not the real cars I should have seen. The view I had been watching for quite some time was not the one from my own window: It was the “reflection” of another window, the one in front of the driver!
I was in total awe, honest! I could not believe that I had been looking at a sight that was not the one I was supposed to see, that was not the one I had believed I was seeing. I admit that it was a kind of revelation. I immediately thought about how many times, in life, we behave the same way. We accept what “seems” to be true and we don’t care to investigate, to try to find out if our “vision” of the situation is the correct one. Someone does something and... there you are, ready to immediately judge their behavior. You don’t give yourself the time to wonder if — maybe — such attitude, that appears to you as negative, may possibly be not what it seems, that those words do not really mean what you reckon they do.
There is always a possibility that your “negative” perception of something or of someone might be the reflection of your mood of the moment, of the judgment you have already passed on that person or situation. Your vision might be deceived by a quick judgment, by a pre-conceived idea, by a conditioning you had previously received. It would be a good idea to discard the “blinders” and allow yourself to look around, in “all” directions, if and when you realize that it could be wise and beneficial.
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Creative Thinking: Discard the ‘blinders’
