Thursday, January 11, 2007

How we see others…

If we were to take a palmful of water from a freely flowing river, can we use that palmful to know the river? Does the colourless still water tell us that the river was a dull brown-green? Or do the mini rainbows arching within the water tell one of the silvery sparkles that danced on the surface of the river? Does one ever know how deep and long the river flows?

Isn’t that what we expect and accept when we meet people? We take a word, a phrase, a story they gave us, or we stole, and seek to find the whole person within that one word and one story. Don’t we see that person in a lovely mauve shade or a dull grey only because we ourselves are looking through a mauve or grey shade instead of a clear one?

The palmful of water snatched from the river merely conforms to the contours of our palm. It takes only the hue of our hand and the depth of the crevice between the pads of our palm…

It seems obviously unwise to judge the river by that palmful, yet we don’t hesitate to see and judge a person from one story, one inference, one rumour.

But at the end of the day, maybe it doesn’t really matter. Maybe it doesn’t matter if we judge the river by the palmful or not, for it doesn't change what is real. For that palmful of water will seep slowly through our fingers till there is not a trace left. But the river! The river may continue to still flow green brown and the sparkles may still wink; but all the while, it will continue to run along laughing, laughing for its hidden unknown depths are still masked by what we choose to see in the palmful of water we hold.

Above River Pic by Turtle

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

ah! lucidly argued! (impressed). and the issue is goes even deeper, if we consider the old saw which tells us that the whole is more than the collection of the parts...

..so, to extend your example, however many handfuls of water we grab from that river, from whichever location and at whatever depth, we will still be unable to know the whole. because, however many handfuls we grasp and hold, we will never see in any of them, the basic property that makes a river a river: the motion.

once again, ela kiri post! (reassured to know that she hasnt lost the touch, for all the feature articles she covers these days) :p

Ian Selvarajah said...

Really great post...

This is definitely an interesting way to think about how we perceive others!

Manshark said...

Jokerman: as per usual, you managed to pick up where I left off and build on it brilliantly (your comment's so much better than my entire post!!)..so "ela kiri" comment! :oD

the1truecoolguy: happy you found this to be an interesting read! :o)

Kaiser Kobayashi said...

Is manshakr SURE she majored in LAW and not philosophy? heheh a tad too serious for dimi but maybe if i read it when im in a serious mood i'll ponder about it more and get the real depth of what your saying...

hmm...dimi picturing manshark atop a mountain meditating with a long white beard....sorry...!!! :p heheh

But seriously...deep post! rather true too! you think too much! :p heheh

Turtle said...

Wait! I took this picture??? I don't remember. Where was it?

Manshark said...

Yep, you sent it to me with the ones that you took during the "Trip Down South"..I just cropped it to get more of the river! :o)