Why Everything You See Is Your Fault: Understanding the Pen Story
It comes from you…
A beautiful, intelligent woman once told me that everything comes from you.
What does that mean?
She asked me if I ever heard “The Pen Story.” I said no, thinking if I may have heard about it and simply forgot.
It goes like this: A man grabs an object from his desk and asks you “what is this?”
It’s a pen. It writes. It has the shape. It contains ink. For sure it’s a pen.
But if you show that same object to a dog, the object you called a pen, the dog may chew it. Chase it if you toss it away and bring it back to you. It may see the same thing you do as a play toy.
You say pen. The dog says toy.
Both are correct.
Everything we see is a blank canvas and we with our own lives, personal experiences, emotions, different personalities and complex minds see things as others, but we do not see them the same way.
Have you ever known a person you really dislike? Someone at work or school who you see as arrogant, conceded, and phony? Is it strange there are others that say this person is confident, humble, and down to earth?
That’s because what you see comes from within.
If you see this person as arrogant, conceded, and phony, and this perspective comes from you, it is quite possible YOU are these things as they live within you.
I have tried to explain the pen story to some people, but they can’t wrap their head around people seeing things differently. Many people think we see things the same way, even though there are countless examples where we do not.
This is why there are different witness accounts to crimes. This is why there’s racial profiling. This is why we see people in certain ways. This is why we fear different things compared to others.
This is why beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Everything is blank. You paint the canvas.
It all comes from you.
Next time, we can explore how you can implement this awareness in your daily life.
