Perception as Reality

My reality is my world. Your reality is yours. Each are able to live in those private spaces. We Americans even have the right to the view. Dandy, huh?

Hardly. If we each lived on an island or land mass that was separated from each other, where we could live without ever dealing with one another, transacting business, or relying on one another for anything, then maybe perception as reality would be dandy, workable. But we don’t live that way. We can’t. It is antithetical to what being a human is all about: an interdependent being capable of high forms of cooperation and collaboration to solve existential problems of living in group or associated groups; brain size and capability rapidly bridge logic function to social function. John Donne was correct: “No man is an island.”

We may each inhabit a particular perception at any given moment. That is the product of past and current experiences which give our understanding of reality a perceptive moment. It naturally shifts in meaning little by little as daily experience accumulates. Major shifts can occur when profound facts or understanding breaks through our perceptive model; those shifts would be the ‘aha’ moments that make life so fascinating. Rare, but that alone gives added emphasis to the profundity of the moment.

The human brain connects us to the world around us. Whether we want it or not it is a fact of life. What we do with it is often unconscious, but perhaps it should be a more conscious process, one in which we find intent and meaning?

Socialization is an interesting process. It is involuntarily at its base; later as we mature, socialization becomes much more selective and specialized. At first it is you and mother, then father; first the two, then the three. Then others are introduced to the ‘family’ setting. Each person’s being struggles to coexist with another and still others. The brain adjusts to each. Each other brain does the same. A stasis is formed; an equilibrium. Momentary maybe, but a balanced moment waiting for the next one. But always a balance or the process of balancing.

In this way we each find a means to deal with one another. We have to. I need something from you, you need something from me. Maybe it is a smile; perhaps a meal, or a service, or cooperation in building something through shared effort. I have something of utility you can use, and vice versa. We inhabit shared space and time; the moment.

As moments trail on connected and branching with one another, social life becomes defined. We rely on those definitions to manage the day to day routines. Reliable routines in which we not only find utility of processes, but also meaning. The sky is blue because you and I agree that it is. The tree is green and lush because we share a view that resonates with one another. Meaning is formed, and grows, and is shared with others outside of our dyad, and the larger social group becomes a larger shared experience.

Socialization expands exponentially as we connect with more and more people and groups and their subgroups, and so on until systems of thought, definitions and languages form throughout the globe.

It is natural that we bridge difference. It is natural that bridging is not always comfortable. But it is involuntary. We have to bridge. If we don’t we become isolated. We become opposite of what is natural.

We see the world through our own eyes and mind; but also through the shared view of others. It is inescapable. Not always understandable, but not something that can be long denied. We belong together in struggle to understand and survive on the planet.

Best we do so with humor and good manners. It makes life so much more pleasant.

Are we ready to see the world as it is?

January 29, 2012