Through The Looking Glass: The Lens Through Which You See Life.

I’ve come to appreciate the phrase, “Looking at the world through rose-colored glasses,” an ode to an idealistic & naive view of the world. It begs the question of the lens (looking glass) through which we see life.

The term “Looking glass” is an old-fashioned name for a mirror. Like the classic mantra of Snow White, we constantly ask, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” Before I lose you, I’m not talking about vanity or our society’s obsession with superficial aspects of the self. No, I’m saving that rant for another day. What I want to talk about is how we perceive the world around us.

To illustrate this point, I’m going to take you back to an old tale by Hans Andersen, The Snow Queen. In a nutshell, an evil mirror is created. When looking through it, everything that is good becomes distorted & dark in essence perverting your view of the world. While the mirror is being transported to the highest peak of the tallest mountain, it is lost, shattering into a million shards. Two of these shards land in the eye and heart of a little boy Kay, instantly contaminating him. His best friend, a little girl named Gerda, is perturbed by his sudden hostility & cruelty, vowing to save him. The rest of the story centers around her journey to rescue Kay & restore him to his former innocence.

Now back to Snow White. The queen would gaze into her looking glass, the magic mirror & seek to find the fairest maiden of them all. When Snow White was pronounced the fairest in the land, the queen flew into a rage and plotted her demise. Again, this is an ode to the plastic world we live in, & the civil wars women wage amongst themselves to oust each other. That’s also another rant for another day, but I said what I said, & if this is you, shots have been fired!

When you take a look at Snow White, you realize she has no intention of challenging her stepmother & would sooner spend her time singing with birds in the forest. Weird hobby but to each his own. How does this all tie in together? Like Kay, in The Snow Queen, The Evil queen perceived the world through her lens. She saw competition & threats where in fact there were none. She fought to kill an innocent soul because of how she perceived the world.

This brings me to the meat of our discussion today. Yes, I have beef with you! How do you see the world? Do you see the world through rose-colored glasses that gloss over the harsh realities of life & seek only beauty? Do you see the world through dark-colored lenses laced with cynicism & self-serving agendas? Why does it even matter how we see the world? Our view of the world defines our discernment of the truth. The truth then becomes subjective as it varies from person to person. Our view defines what we gravitate towards & so what gravitates towards us.

This begs the question; what frequency are you on? Every day, we wake up & ask, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, what is my view of it all?” If it is positive, then we gravitate towards light, love & beauty, all that is right with the world. If it is negative, then we are inclined towards the macabre, seedy & dark. Is it so very cut & dried? I don’t think it is. I am wildly erratic on this scale. I can be a doe-eyed idealist who believes in fairies & chases rainbows, yet in a heartbeat become a caustic cynic, who sees only the dreary & inevitable demise of us all. I am yet to find the balance between these views. Naivety & hoping for the best has led me down many a dark road because sometimes there is potential for good but no actual result of it. On the other hand, I have found that my cynicism deprives me of the joys & inherent beauty around me, because, in my clouded state, I completely miss the good that does exist in the world.

To receive good you must be on the goodness frequency. Think good thoughts, speak good words, and take good actions.

— The Secret (@thesecret) April 26, 2021

I don’t have this all figured out as yet, but I have realized that everything snowballs; if I focus on say, what I’m grateful for, it slowly snowballs into thinking about what I love & what drives me, which snowballs into my hope & aspirations for my future which blazes into this bright warm fuzzy feeling that assures me everything is going to work out. When I focus on what I’ve lost, it snowballs into my past mistakes, which snowballs into all the people that hurt me, which snowballs into my fears about my future & the impending horrors of the unknown. This inevitably spirals into a dark deep pit of despair that I struggle to find my way out of. In essence, it colors the world I live in, & extends into how I see my friends, my family, myself & my future.

#PerceptionIsReality
Perception is everything,changed it life will change! pic.twitter.com/iQIzLeLB48

— Gauri_02 (@gauri_02) April 21, 2021

My challenge to you then is, become aware of your view through the looking glass. Figure out which frequency you are on & what it is you would like to see around you. This is the greatest test because what you see becomes your perceived truth.

This has been another foray into the Musings of a Whimsical Mind. Until next time, later alligator!