Your LIFE LENS
People interest me. Ideas interest me. Ideas come from people and their reactions to other ideas also interest me. Reactions usually contain feelings mixed with ideas.
Everyone has a Life Lens
Psycho-therapists are archeologists of the human mind. They seek to understand clients’ current states of mind by uncovering past events and experiences that continue to influence their perceptions and beliefs.
Your ‘life lens’ is a term that represents your current state of mind. Like all language terms, ‘life lens’ is a symbol - a language construct used to communicate how an archeologist might try to understand “what makes you tick” when you react to an idea or new situation.
When someone expresses a belief which is foreign to the way I think about the topic, I wonder how he or she came to hold that belief. My curiosity can never be truly satisfied unless I had the identical circumstances and experiences of the other’s entire life and had lived inside his or her mind. Of course, this is impossible. Language evolved to bridge the chasm between individual human minds but, of course, it is woefully inadequate for that task.
Love of the unconditional kind.
Some time ago, I read that
LOVE is the desire and willingness to participate in, and share one’s life journey with the partner.
Marital love is a way to become intimate with another’s life lens while allowing the other to become intimate with yours. Such intimacy can be enormously rewarding and frighteningly risky. Divorce is one of life’s most painful experiences, hence the risk.
Love is also the innate human need. It offers a sense of safety - a refuge from the uncertainties of life in an infinitely complex and perennially scary world. The promise and hope to be known and accepted unconditionally keeps the idea of marriage romantic and evergreen.
A mother’s love is the closest that many of us will come to know earthly unconditional love. God is claimed to love all of “His children” unconditionally. Perhaps the love of God and the promise of a safe afterlife is the core lure for many of the faithful, especially for nuns, ordained clergy and the like.
Love’s testing grounds: Twitter, Tiktoc, Facebook, et al
The reactions expressed by people on social media offers an interesting perspective on the life lens’ of participants. The range of reactions, from thoughtful to downright rude, reveals how people feel about their fellow (wo)man.
This is particularly interesting to me when the exchanges involve topics that fall under the sociel etiquette rule: “one doesn’t discuss (topic) in polite company”. The rule evolved because some topics are known to trigger angry and aggressive responses from some participants turning such exchanges into unpleasant affairs. Ensuing “discussions” can devolve into a “pissing contest” or a “mud-slinging” string of epithets and character assassinations.
Tribalism Abounds
On a recent podcast, the guest spoke of humanity as a highly tribal species, a characteristic that has been vitally important for mankind to survive and thrive throughout history. Maybe it is even encoded in our DNA. After all, it has been manifest down through the human geniological tree that allegedly began with Adam and Eve.
This raises questions…
Is every one of us acting out some mixture of genetic and cultural code that displays the trait - ‘tribal tendencies’?
Does this explain the great diversity of life lens’ that are manifest within all 8 billion minds on this planet?
Has this LIFE LENS ‘CODE’ shaped most of our history and destiny throughout the ages?
Will this ‘CODE’ forever keep us separate from one another emotionally, intellectually, physically, socially, culturally, politically and in matters of faith?
To the extent that social media provides any evidence, the answers to these questions is YES. However, that is just My Life Lens speaking and yours may completely disagree as is your right.
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