EYES TO SEE

 

Have you eyes with which to see?  Have you ears with which to hear?  You will say yes, of course.  Even when blind and deaf, most of us believe ourselves to be of open mind; to be intelligent enough; to consider different ways of looking at things; to willingly, industriously engage things, even anomalies, in order to identify or Name a thing before deciding how we should interact with it (when possible).

 ……….

Now:  a charismatic speaker is presenting his ideas for a community center at location A.  He represents persons indigenous to location A.  He is well received.  People find him pleasant looking and accept his plans as positive.  Plans proceed, the community center services many, and the charismatic speaker moves to an area further away.

 Later:  a speaker is presenting his ideas for a community center similar to one that he built in his own hometown.  He seems earnest enough, and if the information he presents is correct it might solve many issues for their own community.  Some of his ideas are a bit quaint, but perhaps some changes could be made to adapt this idea for their own community.

 Thirdly:  yet another person is speaking who wants permission to build something in the community; something that will raise taxes.  He seems like a small town zealot.  Can he not see that what worked in his back woods world would not work here?  Is he looking for an easy living or large salary at their expense while he builds this magical community center for them?  They also find his physical appearance, so unlike their own, somewhat off-putting.

 Lastly:  who is this man from the other side of the world, promoting this ridiculous agenda?  He looks like another species of human and has the gall to believe that civilized peoples might concern themselves with gathering under these conditions for those reasons he so values.  How utterly ridiculous they find his agenda—and the idea that the project should be funded at the taxpayers' hardworking expense.  What a charlatan.

           This speaker is promoting the same agenda to different groups of people in different places.  Their lifestyles and social guidelines are different.  This is the kind of different hearing and different seeing that you would expect to see in people, based on how they value and assess things.  But, let us return to that first meeting . . .

One hundred people attend a meeting wherein a charismatic speaker is presenting his ideas for a community center.  Most of those people hear that the center will be located centrally, offer elder care, child care, medical services, educational and job opportunities, and support for those in need of financial assistance.  Most of those people recognize the speaker.

Only those opposed to or interested in elder care or child care will remember the proposed budgets for those services or the specifics related.  There are three persons in the audience needing medical care who know they can’t wait for this center to open; their minds begin to wander as they contemplate other options.  Two need dental care and are in fact having pain so intense they are having a difficult time focusing on anything in particular that is being said.

 Seven have come to the meeting in a status of unemployment, hoping to obtain details about the community center and secure a job in its construction.  One is a nurse wanting to someday work closer to home.  Ten are mothers; two who want to work in daycare and eight who need daycare closer to home—they listen, but are distracted by their pressing, personal needs.

 An elderly couple in the audience owns the land proposed for the community center.  The man has recently discovered that he has terminal cancer and hopes to sell the land while there is still time to seek treatment in a large medical center far from home.  Three rows back, a woman sits enraptured by the speaker, having been in love with him for most of her life; his words blur as she enjoys merely being in the room with him.

 If interviewed upon leaving this meeting, you would receive very different accounts with very different emphases on matters pertinent to each speaker, about how the agenda was handled.  This is so in life.  We all have materia prima in our dialogue and outlook.  What is important to us?  What matters most highly?

 Yes.  Our beliefs color our senses.  Our senses are trained by our beliefs.  Do you think this isn’t true?  Go to a tanner’s or a perfumery, or merely a restaurant where the smells that are so overwhelming to you, have virtually disappeared to the workers.  The cacophony at the factory?  How long did it take to become a background hum?  When was the last time you beheld a cloud in the blue sky and stopped, amazed by what your eyes were seeing—truly?

 We cannot go about in a state of constant excitation.  We cannot behold the minutia of life with thrall.  Madness would set upon us.  We must filter.  Therefore, we must habituate.  The question is:  how do we habituate, and to what level, under which guidelines and what beliefs?  Study this idea for yourself. 

You have eyes with which to see.  What are their filters?

 Blessed Be This Day 

This is a Direct Voice Communication from my Tribe,

Spirit Elders who share their wisdoms with me

from the other side of the veil.

 

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

a July 14, 2014 reprint

Photo by Marc Schulte on Unsplash