"Most people can't see with any acuity. Their eyes skid over things, but they're not really aware of what they're looking at. Take a typical person and look a the kind of furniture they have, the clothes they wear, the food they eat, the things they read - if they read - and the places they go on holiday, and you realize that they are probably missing 90 per cent of the pleasure to be got out of things because they really don't see anything. You're taught to talk, read and write, but no one seems to teach you how to perceive."
From – Beware Wet Paint by Alan Fletcher
"Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?"
Mark 8:18 New International Version (NIV)
I am currently obsessed with the books of graphic designer icon Alan Fletcher. There is a playfulness to his work that is enchanting. Plus his ultra-inquisitive and omnivorous sense of discovery is dazzling, and a little intimidating.
But I want to take his quote above and extend it beyond strict visual arts. I say the same thing is true of the way most of us “look” at life, other people and the world in general.
Just as “Their eyes skid over things, but they're not really aware of what they're looking at” regarding art and design, our eyes skid over poverty and cruelty. Of course it is way easier to “skid over” people in need if they live on the other side of town, are in prison, or from the other side of the world.
The word Compassion comes from Middle English: via Old French from ecclesiastical Latin compassio(n-), from compati ‘suffer with.’
IF you really look at person (or any sentient being, aka animals) in pain and actually “SEE” them in pain, you feel for them and suffer with them. Compassion only happens if you know how “to see”.
5 comments:
I have nothing to say here, except that this is a great post. I need to think on this a lot more.
I will add something after all. You can take the aikidoist out of the dojo, but you can't take the aikido out of the aikidoist.
I would "SEE" Sensei demonstrate something but when I tried to copy it, I completely forgot what I saw moments before. SEE-ing is really, really, hard in Aikido
I can only speak for myself, but back in those days I was very trapped into using my eyes only. I've tried for the last few years to gain some sensitivity, and Sensei has been emphasizing that a lot. You know, Dave, we still all consider you a member of the dojo. Always will be.
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