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| From: http://www.pals.iastate.edu/carlson/main.html |
Today, as I looked up at a cloud, my brain immediately tried to figure out what it resembled. I was astonished that my brain would so quickly try to impose an image onto a mass of evaporated water. But this is a root of the creativity that defines humanity. We can look at a rock and see the form of "David". We can look at a blank wall and see "The Last Supper". We can look at a field and see a tower. We can look at a pile of cloth and see a dress. We can also see a sheep and see a pile of cloth. Everything humanity has created started from that imaginative force that allows us to see things that are not quite formed or not quite there.
Like anything else that wields power, we can use that imaginative
gift to create tools of destruction, just as we create works of great
beauty. One insidious example of our
ability to impose our imagination onto something external to us is when we look
at a stranger's face and superimpose on him or her personality traits, beliefs,
status and intentions.
It affects how we interact with that person, regardless of whether
we consciously believe or disbelieve our mental ramblings: A person with dark skin gets on the bus. You wonder if he has bus fair. When he pays without issue, you laugh at
yourself for thinking such things, but your hand checks your pocket for your
wallet. An elderly woman invites you
over for a visit. You turn her down
because you don't like tea and have no time to look through family photo
albums. Your neighbour tells you she's
wiccan, and you are shocked because she seems so normal.
No matter how my mind tries to imagine it, that cloud is NOT a
rabbit playing baseball, nor will it ever be.
No matter how much I think it is, or expect it to, the cloud is beyond having to respond to how I perceive it. The influence we have on each
other as human beings require us to be more sensitive to one another than we
would be to a cloud.
While I would not ask anyone to quell the creative urge that has brought the world so much beauty, we might want to start by acknowledging it's limitations: I'm human and sometimes my mind jumps to silly and unfounded conclusions about who you are. I have no desire to harm you in any way by it. I'm sorry. Perhaps you can teach me better.
While I would not ask anyone to quell the creative urge that has brought the world so much beauty, we might want to start by acknowledging it's limitations: I'm human and sometimes my mind jumps to silly and unfounded conclusions about who you are. I have no desire to harm you in any way by it. I'm sorry. Perhaps you can teach me better.
Fascinating analogy, Andrea. A challenging topic, too. I think we navigate through our daily lives relying on creative, impositional bias far more than we sometimes realize, and think sometimes it is learned behaviour, and sometimes it is instinctive behaviour. I also think sometimes it is useful behaviour, and sometimes it is destructive. If I see a stranger lunge towards me with their hands out, I would probably assume they are going to attack me, not embrace me, although I suppose either one is possible. And I would feel no real regret about assuming the former and backing out of the way, even if the latter turned out to be true. In a way, the entire course of meeting a new person and the social dance that surrounds getting to know them will rely on a mix of observation, assumption and guesswork.
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