Hidden Things

A little bit of Thursday morning spring magic.

My mom sent me this pic this morning from behind our garbage cans, wondering what to do. My husband and I are both out of town, so in addition to needing to get three kids off to school my mom also felt the weight of keeping a very poorly placed fawn alive until her mom can come back to get her.

While we wait to hear back from animal control, I thought about the difference between my view and the view of the drivers on the road.

The drivers whizzing by just see two garbage cans. There’s no reason for them to see anything else.

Unlike the advice we’re so often given to keep our eyes open or look for the magic other people don’t see, there’s no reason anyone driving to work should stop their cars to peer behind two random garbage cans.

I would think they were kind of weird (and a little bit unsafe given the locations of our garbage cans) if they did.

But that doesn’t change the fact that hidden behind our garbage cans is a pretty neat thing. A kind of magical thing, honestly. A beautiful and vulnerable little piece of profundity out there in the world, curled up and expectant and hopeful.

I don’t really have any clever point here other than to say that what we see is often not what other people see and it’s no one’s fault. It’s not even a problem, a lot of the time. Our views are just different, based on where we’re going and what we’re doing.

Sometimes we miss the beauty and magic of the world not because we’re not looking but because it’s hidden in a way that we just can’t access.

And sometimes we have such totally different perspectives on the world that some people see two garbage cans and other people get to see an awe-inspiring token of spring.

Both views are accurate.

They both reflect the truth.

They’re just different.

This reality isn’t relativism. And it’s not giving up on the pursuit of truth.

It’s just the basic recognition that in human social life we are all navigating our landscape in 4D and we’ll see different views along the way.

The more we can share our views with others, the better off we all are.

But just because someone doesn’t see exactly what you see doesn’t mean they’re wrong or bad. It just means their view - at that moment - is a different one.

And it might even be a pretty cool view you would have otherwise missed.

If you’re lucky, maybe they’ll share it with you too.

Share your thoughts!

Did you see something awesome today that other people didn’t? Did you share? Want to? Let me know in the comments! And as always, please subscribe and share this post with friends if you like what you read.