8.30.2003
I started reading a post in my Inbox from one of my Yahoo! groups. I found the message vaguely familiar as if I had read it somewhere before. The thoughts were familiar, the writing articulate, the viewpoint sympathetic with my own and the more I read, the more impressed I became with the writer. I was impressed with the turn of phrase, the command of the language, the ability to succinctly summarize complex ideas with a paucity of pharaseology. I was eager to see who this was who had struck such a harmonic chord within me of the three tones of content, delivery and constuction.
Imagine my surpise when I found my own name at the end of the post.
So.
Am I so shallow that I am impressed with myself? Or am I more articulate than I imagined myself to be? Is my perceived erudition a result of how undiscerning I am in fact or a result of how much more eloquent I am than I previously believed myself to be?
Am I looking clearly in a mirror and not recognizing myself or am I looking through distorted lenses at a parody of an image becuase my vision is actually distorted?
Burns asks for the gift that God would give us to see ourselves as others see us.
Even if we have a momentary glimpse of ourselves, as we would see us if we were some other, it makes no difference. We would - as I did and do - wonder if we really were seeing ourselves. And if we were, does that mean others see us the same way or are we blinded in some way that we can't even see that we can't even see? But what if we did see clearly? How would we know the difference?
Imagine my surpise when I found my own name at the end of the post.
So.
Am I so shallow that I am impressed with myself? Or am I more articulate than I imagined myself to be? Is my perceived erudition a result of how undiscerning I am in fact or a result of how much more eloquent I am than I previously believed myself to be?
Am I looking clearly in a mirror and not recognizing myself or am I looking through distorted lenses at a parody of an image becuase my vision is actually distorted?
Burns asks for the gift that God would give us to see ourselves as others see us.
Even if we have a momentary glimpse of ourselves, as we would see us if we were some other, it makes no difference. We would - as I did and do - wonder if we really were seeing ourselves. And if we were, does that mean others see us the same way or are we blinded in some way that we can't even see that we can't even see? But what if we did see clearly? How would we know the difference?
