about the way we filter information.
Every photographer knows that a filter or a gel can change the way we view what the camera sees. It color, shade, or shadow our view in some dramatic way.
At times, we have filters of our own. They’re a product of experience or something we’ve taught. They’re big ideas about behaviors we see.
What I’m thinking is that the filters we use are all about us and our emotional state. When we’re joyful and optimistic, we have rose-colored glasses to color the world brilliant and vividly. When we’re feeling invisible and taken for granted, polarized gray lenses make picture more dull and depressing.
One filter can lead us to put someone on pedestal and days later, another can bring us knock that same person off. It’s wholly not fair. Filtering their behavior that way isn’t fair to anyone. They lose the right to be a complex human being. We lose our humanity and compassion.
When we’re secure, filters highlight other folks’ best traits. They open doors and connect. Sadly those same filters can leave us blind to people with not the best intentions. When we’re on unsteady ground, our filters can enhance what we find mean, nasty, or wrong. We end up finding good people not worth the effort.
I’m checking my filters regularly. Dropping what filters I have working makes me a little more able to see people I meet, a little more able to meet them as they truly are.
Do you filter what you see? Does that help you at all?
Image source: sxc.hu
