Perceptions

By Michael L. Craner

Did you ever play the party game where a phrase is whispered to one person after another in a circle until it returns to the beginning and discover how much the phrase has changed in its short circuit? How about showing an abstract picture to a group of people then have each of them relate what they have drawn from the picture?

Amazing as it may seem, if you have ten different witnesses to the same accident you'll get ten different, endlessly varying versions of the incident.

These examples are called "perceptions," and everyone's is different. They may all be common, and to the unobservant they may even seem identical at times, but I assure you, this is just another perception.

To discover how ten people can view the same event or object, or even text, and come up with different perceptions we have to look deeper at the true subject, which is not the common factor, but rather the uncommon factor. The people themselves.

Every person is similar, but also very unique. What makes everyone different is his or her education, environment, religion, and, here we go again, their perceptions of all they encounter and experience, as well as numerous other factors.

In a world full of people with so many variables and perceptions, it is a wonder we can agree on anything at all, which is where tolerance comes in, but that is another subject.

What I want to share with you in this article is something I have been enjoying for quite a while now, which is observing the many layers in people and life, more specifically in text and in verse. Just as we must sometimes read a joke or watch a movie several times to catch all the punch lines or messages, we can do this with every other encounter in our lives, and we will often discover hidden or unintentional humor, and messages, even in the most mundane.

If you practice this enough, you will start to see things you never noticed before, and it will come more and more easily out at you like those 3D pictures that were so popular a few years ago until we all started going cross-eyed and some government agency banned them.

Poetry can be a great textual training ground for those seeking out multiple perceptions and meanings, especially if the poet is a skilled wordsmith and has built specific layers contrived from their own expanded sense of perception with timing, rhyming, and synonyms.

Comedy is another great favorite of mine, especially the genius of George Carlin and of Robin Williams. These people are hilarious and successful as comedians because of their ability to express themselves on many levels at once, making ten listeners hear the same joke, and ten different punch lines. It is impressive that their humor can be appealing to each listener in different levels, and at different times.

When you really think about the success of the great people in your world, you may begin to realize, as I have, that perhaps their success is not rooted in wealth, position or luck, but in their perceptions, and their ability to communicate the right messages to be perceived by the masses appropriately in the ways that they intended. But often times, their failures may be marked in perceptions that were unintended, overlooked, or misrepresented.

What you "get" out of your experiences, observations and perceptions is entirely up to you; but one thing you can be sure of is that there is more than one way to eat a Reese's, and more than one message in this article.

Thank You, and have a wonderful day!