As I sat there waiting in a cafe, for my drink - and for my predictably time-tardy friend, I was preoccupied tracing the patterns on the lamps at one moment. The other moment, I slide into a rather uncalled for spell of introspection triggered by the ambient quiet. At the table in front of mine, sat a journo-looking lady chatting up, in muffled voices with a rather scruffy looking old man in his khakis. One look and I decided, with those slip-ons and cotton capris he must have travelled fairly well, and maybe published a book or two. As I sat there measuring the couple up, I wondered if really these visual perceptions of people we all tend to have, were ever really true.
We size up a coffee by the cup, choose our linen by touch. Would a linear approach as this hold for measuring up a far more dynamic aspect of human nature? Can you really fall in love at first sight, can you applaud a character by it's flamboyance, can you sum up a person's life with an online profile? The multitudes of a single person's character, do they not transcend the few moments of scrutiny that most people have the time for?
Judgement is an element of human intellect. As long as we use it, we are going to let it over-compensate for the other elements of our intellect - say our ability to see things afresh, turn a new leaf, start off on a clean slate.
Just as I decided not to let my good judgement supercede my vision of things untainted, much to my relief, my spell of epiphany was broken, with my friend finally joining me at the table. As the evening progressed, I noticed how we all are led by our notion of how things should be. Were we ever to let go off these pre-conceived notions, our days would have a fresher start.
If one was lucky enough, maybe one would wake up a new person everyday- missing out lesser of all the colors of irony and paradoxes that life has to offer us!
We size up a coffee by the cup, choose our linen by touch. Would a linear approach as this hold for measuring up a far more dynamic aspect of human nature? Can you really fall in love at first sight, can you applaud a character by it's flamboyance, can you sum up a person's life with an online profile? The multitudes of a single person's character, do they not transcend the few moments of scrutiny that most people have the time for?
Judgement is an element of human intellect. As long as we use it, we are going to let it over-compensate for the other elements of our intellect - say our ability to see things afresh, turn a new leaf, start off on a clean slate.
Just as I decided not to let my good judgement supercede my vision of things untainted, much to my relief, my spell of epiphany was broken, with my friend finally joining me at the table. As the evening progressed, I noticed how we all are led by our notion of how things should be. Were we ever to let go off these pre-conceived notions, our days would have a fresher start.
If one was lucky enough, maybe one would wake up a new person everyday- missing out lesser of all the colors of irony and paradoxes that life has to offer us!
