Thursday, September 24, 2015

Clean Those Lenses!

So once upon a time there was a man who had a pair of lenses he would wear. One day, he got a smudge on his lenses and he didn't bother wiping it off. The next day, another smudge. He was too busy to clean them. The smudges continued to accumulate until it came to a point that he forgot that the world was actually clear and had straight, smooth lines and features. He started to believe that everything didn't just appear smudged to him, but rather the world itself was actually and truly blurry.

Until one day, someone pointed out his problem to him. He was shocked and overjoyed to realize that he had only forgotten about the importance of cleaning his lens on a regular basis. Sure enough, now he could see things as they really were and from then on, he made sure to clean his lenses anytime they got smudged, so that the accumulation wouldn't happen again. He did not want to get used to that false reality ever again.

Now of course, you have probably figured out that this story is a parable. Obviously people don't think that the world itself is blurry just because their lenses are perpetually dirty. However, I have come to realize that in fact, it is very easy for us to get smudged lenses in a different way.