Seeing is Believing?

Growing up in Colon, Michigan (The Magic Capitol of the World) disabused me of that thought.  The father of my childhood friend Harry was The Great Blackstone who delighted in amazing us whenever he was holding court on the island.  They say that magicians are liars, and certainly they intentionally deceive the eye.  Misdirection is the operative word.  But then you do the same to yourself every day.  You see what you want to see and believe what you want to believe.  Sometimes it’s just concentration.  Sometimes a matter of “Now you see it.  Now you don’t.”

You may recall the comment by urbane curmudgeon Alexander Woollcott while travelling across New Zealand.  When a companion noted that the sheep visible through the bus window had been recently shorn, the popular broadcaster cautioned, “At least on this side.”

If I consider depending on the car in front to turn because of flashing direction pointers, my Mary reminds me that it only means the turn signals work.

Sometimes it just comes down to how you look at things. Joni Mitchell saw it from both sides.  Remember?

I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all

Life has a way of stripping away the illusions of what we expect and replacing them.  Sometimes it’s disappointment we receive or perceive.  More often I suspect,  if we’re paying close attention we’ll notice that we are awash in good fortune, bathed in the joy and elation of a life that has meaning and purpose while we wish for more appreciation and love.

Perhaps it is just how we look at it. Do we simply see what we want to see?  Is it possible that believing is seeing instead of Seeing is Believing? Think About It.  

More word wit with Woollcott,  and a wikileaks look at Blackstone and a bow to my home town.