Vision is not about what we see but what we allow ourselves
to see.
A remarkable new book, Blind Spot,
demonstrates many times over how we refuse to see what is in front of our eyes.
Instead, what we see is what our mind wants
us to see.
One famous example of this comes from Wilbur Wright who
wrote, “I confess that in 1901, I said to my brother Orville that man would not
fly for fifty years… Ever since, I have
distrusted myself and avoided all predictions.”
What is beyond our vision generally lies beyond our imagination.
We all have biases that distort vision. From remembering certain groups of words
while forgetting others, to actually not seeing something in front of our face,
we program ourselves to not notice certain things. Did you ever try to point something out to a
person who could not see it?
That is why the ancient sages teach us to continually
question what we think we know.
Prejudice blinds us to truth.
In fact, the word “invent” comes from the Latin, invenre, meaning “to find.” When people look to the ordinary and perceive
that which they have refused to see before they find, discover, and invent. Eyes open and newfound vision comes.
Torah strives to continually give us new perspective on the
world and ourselves. Think of it: Every
time we read Torah (and we have been reading the same thing for the better part
of four thousand years) we see novel thoughts, nuances and approaches to life
for the first time. “Examine it
thoroughly for everything is in it,”
declares the Mishna.
It is almost as if new sentences are scripted into the
ancient text each night. How else could
these new ideas suddenly appear? Of
course this is not true. What is fact is
that with fresh eyes we find new insight.
On vacation with his family, Dr. Edwin Land’s small
daughter, Jennifer, complained that she could not see the picture her father
just snapped. Within one hour, Land had
the solution in his head, which eventually became the Polaroid Land Camera.
Don’t like what you see?
Time for change?
All we need is vision to make a new reality.
