Sight and Optic!

At a picnic spot, these brothers took turn to watch the garden through the binoculars. Their father too used it. So it was not just a a toy.

As Anna and I watched these children, they were captured by the difference in the magnification and clarity of the objects they watched with and without the binoculars. They seemed to be in a mood of wonder and surprise as long as we were able to watch them. The binocular provided them with a new quality to their viewing. 

Our viewing  is augmented by our attention, focus, interest and pre-existing information on what we watch. It is the same eyes which process all the visual impulses, but how the eyes process are governed by the higher order functions of attention, interest and earlier knowledge of the object viewed. In that sense, sight is not just eye-dependent alone. Sight is qualified by our mood, enthusiasm, learning intent, curiosity, etc. 

What is a greater pre-determinant for  good quality sight! What influences our sight most! Our optic.

Each of us a unique optic-  how and what we see. This is influenced by our childhood experiences.

A friend who visited us sometime back did not notice the rose flowers in the garden, while he noticed the others. The rose flowers were conspicuously visible. When I asked, whether he liked the rose flowers as well, he mentioned that he did not like the rose flowers because the plant has thorns. He remembers that his mother had to take out a thorn of a rose bush from his finger. It was intensely painful. Since then he had an aversion for the rose flower. An even that happened forty years ago limits his sight. His ugly experience became the optic through which he looked at the rose flowers. 

A lot of our behaviour is rooted in our experiences of childhood. They colour our optic !

Most of us would need ongoing revision of our optic! When a friend called me on phone last week, the first thought that rushed to my mind was a difficult conversation we had sometime back. I needed a moment or two to be freed from that thought to continue that conversation in a pleasant manner! I was not aware how upset I was still, even after the lapse of two years! Now I have begun another journey of inner reconciliation.

Our inner world determines our optic-how we see, hear, discern and respond!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)