Enjoyed reading this. It’s a special way of seeing that we have to develop in order to see the mundane or small details and the ‘big picture’ before us...and we live in a world where there is soooo much going on all around us. This reminded me of instructions when learning to drive. Pay attention to what’s going on immediately close around you and keep an eye on the ‘big picture’ at the same time.
That way of seeing made such an impression on me. Maybe because as a child in the backseat of the car when my father was driving, I watched all kinds of small mundane things outside the car window and did not have to concern myself with the over all ‘big picture’ ahead....having no awareness of the need to see both. But not until years later, with that instruction for driving, did I hear it formalized as a way of seeing. This reminded me how much we sometimes miss and are amazed that we did. Yet I’ve noticed when I’m thinking about something else, and like the comment before by Tomi Daniel, I can look literally without seeing, missing what’s right in front of me.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I so enjoyed reading this piece!
Wow, guilty! I do this a lot, although mine is a slightly different version of 'looking without seeing.' I have looked at people without seeing them, looked at pages without seeing some words, and at bookshelves without seeing some books. On my fifth return to the closet, I finally see the shirt that I have looked at four times already. I look at people at regular meetings for months before I finally "see" them. As you rightly pointed out, often it's because of our assumptions that we cannot, so we do not. I guess that gets us back to the need for an open mind, genuine curiosity, and an intentionality to seek to know and find out what "the bulky red boxes sprouting from the sidewalk" is wherever we encounter them. :) Thanks for the reminder to all of us to make that conscious effort to look with fresh eyes at all that is before us.
*Sheepishly taking off my earbuds* as I read this on the subway. Mailboxes are so fascinating to me because they are (often) an intersection of interesting design and government bureaucracy.
Thanks for the very kind mention of my Baldwin piece!
The rules of engagement are different on the subway - keep your earbuds in, I repeat keep your earbuds in lol. J/K
But you're right about the mailboxes being a particular crosshatch - I never noticed them so much until now. But I have always noticed the art and design on manhole covers (and ugh manhole cover is an awful turn of phrase!) - which again sounds so bizarre - but truly I've always found them interesting - and have a few photos in my phone of unusual or particularly decorative ones over the years.
So glad to find your letter in my digital mailbox this morning 😊📮
Of course, it happens to me all the time. Most often when I'm overworked and tired, I just lose sight of the small things, the quirky details. I used to be more attentive in the past when I had the time to do street photography every day, I miss those long wandering hours!
Oh I'd love to read a piece about your street photography with accompanying pictures of course!
As for seeing the small things - please don't beat yourself up! You explained it perfectly - overworked and tired mean the big picture is all encompassing, then you'll switch gears and all the exquisite details will come to the fore! You're doing lots! But it always ebbs and flows.
I guess that's called adulthood, isn't it? 😆 Sometimes we just need an hour or two of doing nothing to reconnect with our surroundings. Not easy to incorporate "idle" in daily life these days but I wonder if it's still possible somehow!
I love Japanese mailboxes, probably because they remind me of my Tokyo childhood. I never noticed how much like British postboxes they are, but on my recent UK trip I was very aware of their cheerful ubiquity.
I never in a million years thought I'd pay attention to something so pedestrian as mailboxes lol! I visited the UK only once an a very long time ago at that - and I think I was so busy looking at the phone booths and double-decker buses that I paid no mind to the mail boxes. "Cheerful ubiquity" - I quite like that turn of phrase. I can always use more cheerful ubiquity in my life 😆
I recently learned that UK postboxes--at least the ones in England--are marked with the initials of the monarch who reigned when they were installed. Most are stamped ER, but there are some from Queen Victoria (VR) and her heir Edward VII (EVIIR) Queen Elizabeth's father, George V chose the simplest: GR. Rarest of all are ones from the very brief reign of his brother Edward VIII (EVIIIR). Interestingly, the ones I saw in Shetland didn't seem to have a royal mark.
Hah! In a similar vein, sometimes I feel like I can't really see what my children look like, much in the same way it's hard to see yourself as others see you. And it's only through pictures can I see how much they've grown - or by comparison when spending time with the children of friends I haven't seen in a long time. And then suddenly I see my own kids with new eyes. It's the oddest thing and it's not all the time. But the day to day you can't see them change and grow. Does that make any sense at all?
The Japanese post boxes are distinctively red and it is a treat to come across the outliers. I have not started watching From Scratch but adored the audible version read by the author and did not want to be disappointed. May binge this weekend so we can discuss. 😊
Yes please - I have two more episodes to go! I do want to go back and read the book but maybe I'll try the audio book - I do love a good narrator and the author is most often the best narrator of all! Thanks for the recommendation Regina 😊!
Let me know what you think when you do! And Perryne - it's been far too long - would like to catch up with you IRL one of these days! Perhaps this coming summer when we head to NY.
Enjoyed reading this. It’s a special way of seeing that we have to develop in order to see the mundane or small details and the ‘big picture’ before us...and we live in a world where there is soooo much going on all around us. This reminded me of instructions when learning to drive. Pay attention to what’s going on immediately close around you and keep an eye on the ‘big picture’ at the same time.
That way of seeing made such an impression on me. Maybe because as a child in the backseat of the car when my father was driving, I watched all kinds of small mundane things outside the car window and did not have to concern myself with the over all ‘big picture’ ahead....having no awareness of the need to see both. But not until years later, with that instruction for driving, did I hear it formalized as a way of seeing. This reminded me how much we sometimes miss and are amazed that we did. Yet I’ve noticed when I’m thinking about something else, and like the comment before by Tomi Daniel, I can look literally without seeing, missing what’s right in front of me.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I so enjoyed reading this piece!
Wow, guilty! I do this a lot, although mine is a slightly different version of 'looking without seeing.' I have looked at people without seeing them, looked at pages without seeing some words, and at bookshelves without seeing some books. On my fifth return to the closet, I finally see the shirt that I have looked at four times already. I look at people at regular meetings for months before I finally "see" them. As you rightly pointed out, often it's because of our assumptions that we cannot, so we do not. I guess that gets us back to the need for an open mind, genuine curiosity, and an intentionality to seek to know and find out what "the bulky red boxes sprouting from the sidewalk" is wherever we encounter them. :) Thanks for the reminder to all of us to make that conscious effort to look with fresh eyes at all that is before us.
*Sheepishly taking off my earbuds* as I read this on the subway. Mailboxes are so fascinating to me because they are (often) an intersection of interesting design and government bureaucracy.
Thanks for the very kind mention of my Baldwin piece!
The rules of engagement are different on the subway - keep your earbuds in, I repeat keep your earbuds in lol. J/K
But you're right about the mailboxes being a particular crosshatch - I never noticed them so much until now. But I have always noticed the art and design on manhole covers (and ugh manhole cover is an awful turn of phrase!) - which again sounds so bizarre - but truly I've always found them interesting - and have a few photos in my phone of unusual or particularly decorative ones over the years.
So glad to find your letter in my digital mailbox this morning 😊📮
Of course, it happens to me all the time. Most often when I'm overworked and tired, I just lose sight of the small things, the quirky details. I used to be more attentive in the past when I had the time to do street photography every day, I miss those long wandering hours!
(you make me miss Japan terribly!)
Oh I'd love to read a piece about your street photography with accompanying pictures of course!
As for seeing the small things - please don't beat yourself up! You explained it perfectly - overworked and tired mean the big picture is all encompassing, then you'll switch gears and all the exquisite details will come to the fore! You're doing lots! But it always ebbs and flows.
I guess that's called adulthood, isn't it? 😆 Sometimes we just need an hour or two of doing nothing to reconnect with our surroundings. Not easy to incorporate "idle" in daily life these days but I wonder if it's still possible somehow!
I love Japanese mailboxes, probably because they remind me of my Tokyo childhood. I never noticed how much like British postboxes they are, but on my recent UK trip I was very aware of their cheerful ubiquity.
I never in a million years thought I'd pay attention to something so pedestrian as mailboxes lol! I visited the UK only once an a very long time ago at that - and I think I was so busy looking at the phone booths and double-decker buses that I paid no mind to the mail boxes. "Cheerful ubiquity" - I quite like that turn of phrase. I can always use more cheerful ubiquity in my life 😆
I recently learned that UK postboxes--at least the ones in England--are marked with the initials of the monarch who reigned when they were installed. Most are stamped ER, but there are some from Queen Victoria (VR) and her heir Edward VII (EVIIR) Queen Elizabeth's father, George V chose the simplest: GR. Rarest of all are ones from the very brief reign of his brother Edward VIII (EVIIIR). Interestingly, the ones I saw in Shetland didn't seem to have a royal mark.
Does my husband count as an “everyday object?” 😬 Sometimes I go for longer than seems normal not really seeing him, in the same way as your mailboxes…
Hah! In a similar vein, sometimes I feel like I can't really see what my children look like, much in the same way it's hard to see yourself as others see you. And it's only through pictures can I see how much they've grown - or by comparison when spending time with the children of friends I haven't seen in a long time. And then suddenly I see my own kids with new eyes. It's the oddest thing and it's not all the time. But the day to day you can't see them change and grow. Does that make any sense at all?
Absolutely.
The Japanese post boxes are distinctively red and it is a treat to come across the outliers. I have not started watching From Scratch but adored the audible version read by the author and did not want to be disappointed. May binge this weekend so we can discuss. 😊
Yes please - I have two more episodes to go! I do want to go back and read the book but maybe I'll try the audio book - I do love a good narrator and the author is most often the best narrator of all! Thanks for the recommendation Regina 😊!
I've been meaning to watch it and could not tell (not paying attention) if it was a rom-com or not. I now will. Thanks Z!
From p - short for perryne
Let me know what you think when you do! And Perryne - it's been far too long - would like to catch up with you IRL one of these days! Perhaps this coming summer when we head to NY.