Anyone that knows me knows that I can’t see. Forrealz. If I take off my glasses, I couldn’t read a computer screen in front of me. Putting me behind the wheel would result in a fender-bender within 45 seconds or less. I might not be able to even read the letters on the gearshift to even know I had the car in drive. Thankfully, I wear glasses or contacts during my waking hours to ensure the safety of myself and those around me. However, today I went outside on this beautiful, sunny, March day, and I took my glasses off. I sat in front of the State Department and just watched the world on 23rd street NW.
I use the term “watch” loosely because I couldn’t really see anything. I could tell the difference between a car and a tree, a man and a woman, but I couldn’t see anyone’s faces. Everyone looked like Bob the Builder dolls. I met some model-UN people outside and talked to them for a little bit, but it was very weird, not being able to clearly see their faces. Weird, yet refreshing as I didn’t notice every detail of their outfit or a strand out of place in their hair, the people walking around in the background, the cars passing by, etc. It was a very simplistic view of the world that I hadn’t had in a long time. It’s a hard notion to describe, especially if you have perfect vision. It’s actually NOT like taking one sense away and the other 5 are heightened. It’s closer to eliminating the clutter in a room, except the room is your consciousness.
In the brief 30 minutes I was outside, I had a mini-ephiphany. I notice EVERYTHING. Sometimes I have a Rainman-like attention to detail and memory. I view the world like a Van Gogh painting close up. I notice the brush strokes of everything around me. Some may say it’s a talent or gift, you know, people make careers out of analyzing things. Journalism and higher education teaches us to think in this manner. Our innate human inquisitive-ness is magnified by this aspect of our lifestyle. I wonder what it would be like to just not analyze for a day or two. Don’t get me wrong, I relax like nobody’s business. I could be a professional “Chill-er” if there was such a job. But I wonder could we live life like a moment of meditation? To accept a stimulus and not process it? To allow what is…
Just a thought.
**SiDE NOTE**People have asked me why I’m no longer on Twitter. Well, honestly I never agreed with the whole Twitter concept in the first place; and job boredom, peer pressure, and curiosity came together like an unholy trifecta leading me to the over-indulgence of non-stop microblogging. I don’t judge my Tweeps, I just prefer the “luxury” of having more than 140 characters in which to express my thoughts. That’s all.
1 comment:
1. i miss your cool ass thoughts on twitter. glad it wasn't somethin i said.
2. i feel you on the over-stimulated, reactionary nature of modern existence, but given the choice, i prefer the ability and inclination to sense everything and process it than the opposite. some people have to literally be hit over the head to notice anything at all. i have always thought sensitivity, like what you have with your glasses on, is an absolute requirement for intelligence. without sensitivity, you could never develop useful intelligence. plus, i could never fill in for jack bauer if ever needed, without my razor sharp wits about me.
--the raving lunatic
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