Vision – What You See Is Not Always What You Get

The eyes can be very misleading if you rely on them only to make your decisions because what you see is not always what you get. If you were here looking in my eyes, you would think that I had perfect vision especially if you were close enough to see that I’m not wearing contacts. You would be entirely wrong to assume that I have 20/20 vision because what I see is not reality.

I wanted you to see what I see, so with my glasses on I typed, “This is how I see EVERYTHING without my glasses…” and it was perfectly clear. Then I created a lighter version of the same wording and pasted it almost completely double. Finally, I blurred it some, lifted my glasses up a bit so I could compare it to my uncorrected vision. I added a bit more blur and checked the comparison again. Here’s a great photo to illustrate EXACTLY what I see when I’m not wearing my glasses.

What I see without my glasses is NOT what I get.

It is a bit more tricky when I look at things and people. For instance, everyone has four eyes and I don’t mean they wear glasses. They are also a double image that is blurred. The double is just enough to put another whole set of eyes under the eyes they already have in their head. It looks like this…

When I’m outside the walls of my home, I only wear my glasses if I’m reading something. The rest of the time, I see doubled and blurry. Since I’ve always had vision like this, I know which is the real image and which is the copy. The blur makes everything softer and more pleasant too. Unfortunately, when I meet people face-to-face, I’m not wearing my glasses, so what I see is not really how they appear.

The ONLY time I have any chance of seeing what I get is when I’m wearing my glasses. Sometimes, even that isn’t accurate because…

Have you ever judged a book by the cover and it was either better or worse than you actually thought?

Better yet, have you ever judged a person to be beautiful or handsome and once you got to know them, they appeared ugly because of their personality? Maybe you’ve experience the complete opposite too.

When I had PTSD, I did not appear to be a person with PTSD. I looked like normal, healthy Sherry even though I was having flashbacks every minute of every day for over a year and a half. I mean, how does a person with PTSD look? How about someone who has a broken heart. If they don’t tell you and they aren’t crying, you probably won’t have any idea that they have a broken heart. Can you look at someone and tell if they are a diabetic, thief, liar or an obsessive compulsive person? Most often you will not be able to see these things by simply looking at a person. Once again, what you see is not what you get.

What is the solution to this great dilemma?

It all boils down to the same thing…love. With love you can not only see the truth, but you can feel it, rely upon it and find comfort with it. Don’t be so quick to judge another person because you more than likely will get it all wrong. Society is so quick to catch people doing things wrong or embarrassing. I guess society as a whole is one miserable group of people. If you love people, you buoy them up and try to celebrate the good in them. Open your eyes and really see. The view may surprise you.

“One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery ~