Seeing through my eyes

Darren’s weekly musings

May 17^th-23^rd

If you could see through my eyes

In the play and later the movie, Driving Miss Daisy, Hoke is a personal driver for Miss Daisy, a somewhat cantankerous, high-strung woman.  The play shows how Miss Daisy does not want a driver at first.  She uses any excuse to get rid of him.  But Miss Daisy’s son is adamant, she can’t driver herself and she needs a driver.  Slowly, over the course of thirty years, a bond begins to form between Miss Daisy and Hoke.  They develop a friendship.  Hoke becomes her trusted companion.  Towards the end of the movie though, we learn that Hoke has developed cataracts.  Miss Daisy tells her friend that he should no longer be driving with his eyes.  Hoke replies, “How can you know what I see if you can’t see through my eyes?”

And that is what I want to talk about today- our perceptions- and how we see the world.  We can’t see through anyone else’s eyes.  We don’t hear with someone else’s ears.  We don’t feel with someone else’s sense of touch.  Take for example this weeks weather.  After some warm days last weekend, we are experiencing much cooler weather right now.  Some people I observed out the bus window yesterday were dressed as if it was mid January.  They had winter coats on and gloves.  And they didn’t seem to be dressed too warmly. Other people were in short sleeves and shorts.   And they weren’t shivering or looking extremely cold.  It seems people’s perception of yesterday’s weather varied.

You know I love music.  Almost all types of music fill my soul with great joy.  But certain music that my son like fill me with confusion if not outright dread.  In turn, I am sure my Neil Diamond music fills him with confusion and dread.  It is all in the matter of perception.

Travelling in other parts of the world, one can see that people have differing tastes in foods.  I might eat something that I consider very spicy.  Someone else will find it very bland.  Our perceptions are very different.

I think our perceptions also vary when we talk about certain words.  I remember a conversation I had last year with someone who came seeking advice.  In the midst of my mostly listening, I said to the person that they seemed to be looking for justice.  I used a term that is used often in the scripture.  God is God of justice.  We are told that justice should flow like a mighty stream.  That is the church’s view of justice.  In my mind, this person was seeking that justice.

The person coming for advice though had a very different view of justice.  They grew up in a country where the court system was extremely corrupt.  Justice for them was tinged with bias, with bribery, and lack of fairness.  They could not have anything to do with justice.  They didn’t want a God to be God a justice, because justice was so unfair.  I learned that people perceive words very differently.

Hoke is very wise in Driving Miss Daisy.  We don’t all see things the same way.  Things that I take for granted, these things are not perceived the same way by someone else.  I am wrong to think that others sense the world that I do.  I need to realize that my perception of words, sights, and sounds are unique to me and that others don’t share them.  Blessings