by Gilda Bonanno
I recently went to the optical
store at the mall because I needed a new pair of sunglasses.
The first pair I tried on
made everything yellow. For a few
minutes, that yellow-tinted world became my reality. The blue sky, visible through the window,
became green. The red sweater I was wearing, viewed through
the yellow tint, looked orange.
The yellow-tinted world was
true for me, but it was not real. Someone
else looking at these same things, but without the yellow sunglasses, would
have seen entirely different colors.
That got me thinking about
my view of the world in general. How is
my view of certain people or situations colored by the mental filter I’m
wearing?
Like the sunglasses, I use
the filter to protect myself from information overload or unhelpful
details. But, like the sunglasses, the
filter can also impair my vision and prevent me seeing people or situations in
a clear light.
The next time you are so sure
that your vision of a situation is correct, take just a moment to consider
whether there is another view of reality that you could see if you just
adjusted or removed your filter.
And as for the yellow
sunglasses, I took them off – and replaced them with sunglasses that show
everything in true color.
For a humorous take on the
process of shopping for glasses, see my humorous
essay: April Fools' Humor - Getting Glasses: The Comical, the Bad & the Ugly