The Things We See

Twenty years ago I picked a scrap of paper in a Starbucks parking lot.

The paper was a discarded page from a quote-a-day calendar but since that day I haven’t been able to get the quote out of my head:

“We don't see things as they are, 
    we see them as we are.”
- Anaïs Nin

That paper scrap and its silly quote wedged itself into a tiny crack in my wall of certainty. As I came to realize that *truth* and *my perception of it* were different things, Anaïs gave me a mantra to guide my exploration.

It was like taking the red pill in the Matrix (which is also 20 years old this year).

So much of modern debate is not about the thing itself - our debates rage over our projected perceptions of the thing. We believe we are merely looking through the window and objectively describing the thing we see, but what we are describing is mostly our own reflection in the widow glass staring back at us.

…I previously wrote about this phenomenon as it relates to studying the Bible: A Lens Darkly Shaded