Common

Back to what matters in the world of our perception. I am reminded of the time when years ago my teenage son responded to my arguing his perception on how the world should be treating him was in conflict with what was real.  He said, “Reality is a slave to my perception” That humorously deflected the point of our discussion, but also it was a profound premise I would unintentionally puzzle over for decades to come. That was incredibly insightful for a fifteen year old.  In fact, it would be insightful for anyone regardless of their age.  After years of delving into the psychology and philosophy of man throughout the ages, it seemed, that fundamental truth continued to surface. Each of us perceives the world through our own filters; the information provided by our five senses and our own life experiences.  The process of interpreting sensory inputs from the external world is demanding and subjective in and of themselves.  In the field of Quantum physics the study of possibilities addresses questions of how the world feels to us; of whether there’s a difference between the way the world feels to us and the way the world actually is has opened up a huge discussion about truth and its ultimate definitive absolute quality; if indeed there is one.  Certainly that has been the subject of philosophical discussion for eons.  Ontological, (source of our being) and Epistemology, (the study of the nature and grounds of knowledge as in the limits of validity of what we think we know) has influenced cultural policy and laws of all societies throughout the ages; and in a variety of fashions.

   Here was where I felt tempted to insert links to great thinkers, their papers and essays on the subject of perception.  In doing so I would attempt to validate my opinion on the backs of others; who in turn recite others opinions on the topic and we’d have a nice logical chain of evidence to refer to that would justify a proposition.  Now this practice goes on to consider how other interpretations on ideas and concepts that were generated before us, helps us understand the phenomenon of the world that we are inexplicitly involved with, existed before us, and that the best we can do is sort out ‘you are here’. 

   It is not conclusive, and it is not absolute in defining the universal truth on any topic of discussion. It is, in other words, a practiced principal in discounting interpretations that may no longer be useful to our present situation.  Rarely do we seek to obtain reasonable choices, we seek the right one only.  This manner of investigation of course is an evolutionary developed technique, we’re busy staying alive and the stakes are dire if we fail to sort out what is important.  In fact, our brain is so overwhelmed by the volume of stimuli that comes to the alter of our awareness that it can only address, in a conscious-cognitive manner, a fraction of the stream of information.  Because of that, we take cognitive short cuts in order to allow our attention to focus on those things that are really important. This is the development of habits and we do it without consciously dedicating ourselves to the task.  We recognize patterns and so we adapt our behavior to perform certain tasks that are routine without a lot of dedicated cognitive energy.  A simple example would be one within a myriad of things we do daily that we don’t think about; walking.  Initially that took a lot of attention and effort; until we learned how. From then, our skills grew with repetition so we thought about it less until now we are only casually aware of how we walk; and that would be mostly when we are in unfamiliar surroundings.  Then, we slow down and take measured, careful steps in process. More deliberate and careful, because we have also learned that if we neglect doing that we are prone to fall and then injure ourselves.  This born on either personal experience (that we recall readily in these situations) or by observing others in similar situations (what is deemed as social modeling)

   So ours is a process of observation, awareness, then cognition; which is of course thinking, a process of comparing our past experience along with values (those habits, rituals and beliefs that were shown to us as the proper way to behave in given situations) and of course lest I forget the priority system of our emotional cues tied into any of the above.  Emotions such as  fear or anxiety is coded into our past experiences/values allowing them to race to the top of the short list of considerations when weighing a course of action prompted by a not so familiar situation.  More on that later for sure. 

As for today, let me revisit a key element to include in the overarching desire for happiness; that would be awareness.  Not just the kind of awareness of what is swarming outside of your flesh…but awareness of how choosing is not so evident or clear as to why choices are made so instantaneously and without regard. Horace’s famous aphorism Carpe diem is understood to mean ‘seize the day’, but a more accurate interpretation is “to enjoy, seize, use, make use of” which means “choose well”.