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I Love Riddles

“What’s always in front of you but you never see it.”

By Sung Uni LeePublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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Looking past your bias blindspot

Riddles are a super cute way to flex our intellectual muscle. They play with words, play with perspective, juggle concepts, are simple yet profound, and best of all, punctuate moments with some light humour. Borrowed from a child’s library, a book of best puns and riddles is a great read, a sweet tickle.

The riddle: “What’s always in front of you but you never see it.”

Before the reveal of the “real” answer, consider this alternative. What’s always in front of you but you never see? Your nose! I find this answer to be most intriguing. Okay, if you want to get technical, since your nose is a part of you, maybe it doesn’t qualify as an answer, but regardless… “Your nose is in your field of vision, so you are always looking at your nose. Luckily, our brains filter out sensory information we don’t need. The ability to ignore expected input is called “unconscious selective attention.” (http://factmyth.com/factoids/you-are-always-looking-at-your-nose/)

We’re talking about efficiency here, your brain knows your nose…all too well. The only time you might notice your nose is if a conspicuous pimple appeared, say on your left nostril, disrupting the patterning of the image composed in your brain. Perhaps it’s like looking at a scenic photograph where a bit of a thumb, cuff, flying hair, has interrupted the perfection of the scene. Maybe our eyes only want to register one distance at a time. Who nose?

In considering this realization, I recalled something I heard on NPR-public radio. It was a show about psychology, science and spirituality. The researcher being interviewed was studying biases – a hot topic for these times of racial and civil unrest. In the study, it became apparent that everyone had biases. Culturally. Naturally. We’re talking about efficiency here! Biases develop from a pattern, real or perceived, that we rely on because it’s faster for our brain to process. The biggest challenge for people across the board is recognizing our own biases, the “bias blindspot.”

Let’s start with the assumption that most people are good people, with good intentions, good value systems, compassionate and sane. Assuming I am from that camp, I want to become fully aware of the biases in my life. I notice when I’m NOT making assumptions in my interactions with strangers, friends, family, and anyone I “think” I know, I can be more present, more responsive. The gift I get is a great feeling of flow and ease, even if the situation may require hard work or an uncomfortable emotion. How would I know if I’m operating from my bias blindspot? Is there an indicator, a litmus test, a sensation, an alarm that rings out when I’m unawares of the damage that can be done, the judgement unjustly passed? I don’t know the answer to this riddle, but can testify to being in the middle of the biases– racism, sexism, you-name-it-ism – it just does not feel good. It's fuel for unhappiness, discontentment, quarrels, frustration. In the projectingdds of what you think you know, there’s a violence in it.

The Answer: “The future is the thing that is before you that you cannot see.”

Our future. People are struggling right now. As a nation, culture, species, we are at a very complex crossroads. The crises in our present life have always been there, it was the nose that we kept out of our awareness. However, the undermining, dismantling of all the systems, financial, educational, political, religious, etc...are the tremors before a great quake. Our perspective seems very short-sighted with little regard for sovereignty and legacy. Can we see what we’ve been focused on and then shift our perspective to see what we haven't been seeing? Does the world falling through the seams serve this function? I would like to say yes, because I sort of believe in us or maybe the feeling of hope is universal and eternal. I relinquish fairy tales and not noticing my nose, the pimple on it, and the realities of our struggles as well as our graces. My utopian vision of humanity rests on our learning to deal with and confront all the realities of what makes us who we are. We are a tangle of contradictions! We are fallible to the end. Simply human. So funny, yet true, since the saying was born from our fallacies, humans are the only beings on the planet that have the capacity and will to cut our nose to spite our face. How riddle-culous!

Humanity
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About the Creator

Sung Uni Lee

My desires for the life I am creating:

Full expression.

Full engagement.

Fully in love.

in my Full Hearty way.

Writing to right my wrongs. Writing for levity. Writing to make sense of the less-sense.

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