Seeing
Seeing or not seeing.
"The light of the body is the eye..." Luke 11:34
"...watch out in case (you) fail to see the light..." N.T. Wright
Isaac, almost blind and unable to discern which of his two sons deserved to receive the blessing, blesses his younger son.
"Watch that your eye doesn't become darkened."
I'm guilty of too often not seeing or only seeing the veneer, of being in a hurry and accepting a stereotype rather than looking beyond or beneath the outer garment. How easy it is to see things with a one-dimensional view.
It takes time to move beyond the cursory glance to a place where you see the other—really see them.
In Muriel Barbery's book The Elegance of the Hedgehog people choose not to see.
Renee Michel, a concierge— a working-class woman, performs her tasks and is invisible as a person to the tenants in the building— who suffer from a serious bout of class-consciousness. Renee hides her intelligence—taking on the mantle of what the people expect from a concierge. She dresses and talks in a manner that fits their expectations.
Two people do see beneath the facade—one a young girl who is a lonely intellectual who sees the world as meaningless. The other person is a Japanese gentleman, Mr. Ozo, who helps unmask Renee.
Seeing involves introspection and contemplation.
To really see another requires time and a willingness to listen and ask questions. But there's also the willingness of the other to be seen.
It's hard to engage beneath the veneer.
Renee's past experiences made her leery of letting the tenants see her as an intellectual autodidact —especially because she knew that they pigeonholed her through the prism of their own biases.
To see —one needs to release, to let go, of preconceived ideas.
To be seen—one needs to release, to let go, of the tough outer garments we wear for protection.
"The light of the body is the eye..." Luke 11:34
"...watch out in case (you) fail to see the light..." N.T. Wright
Isaac, almost blind and unable to discern which of his two sons deserved to receive the blessing, blesses his younger son.
"Watch that your eye doesn't become darkened."
I'm guilty of too often not seeing or only seeing the veneer, of being in a hurry and accepting a stereotype rather than looking beyond or beneath the outer garment. How easy it is to see things with a one-dimensional view.
It takes time to move beyond the cursory glance to a place where you see the other—really see them.
In Muriel Barbery's book The Elegance of the Hedgehog people choose not to see.
Renee Michel, a concierge— a working-class woman, performs her tasks and is invisible as a person to the tenants in the building— who suffer from a serious bout of class-consciousness. Renee hides her intelligence—taking on the mantle of what the people expect from a concierge. She dresses and talks in a manner that fits their expectations.
Two people do see beneath the facade—one a young girl who is a lonely intellectual who sees the world as meaningless. The other person is a Japanese gentleman, Mr. Ozo, who helps unmask Renee.
Seeing involves introspection and contemplation.
To really see another requires time and a willingness to listen and ask questions. But there's also the willingness of the other to be seen.
It's hard to engage beneath the veneer.
Renee's past experiences made her leery of letting the tenants see her as an intellectual autodidact —especially because she knew that they pigeonholed her through the prism of their own biases.
To see —one needs to release, to let go, of preconceived ideas.
To be seen—one needs to release, to let go, of the tough outer garments we wear for protection.
2 Comments:
Seeing one another reminded me of this wonderful quote by Thomas Merton:
“Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time, there would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. I suppose the big problem is that we would fall down and worship each other."
Love your musings, Linda. Thank you.
Thank you for both the quote and the nice comment. I'll copy down the quote for my collection.
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