Cellophane and tinted glass

When I was a child I remember getting candy, I liked the sweet treats but I liked the cellophane wrappers even more. I can remember looking through them and being fascinated by how the world suddenly changed. When ever I would look though the red cellophane the world had a different feel than when I looked through the green plastic wrapper. I noticed too that some things would become almost invisible when looking through red and that the same things would stand out when looking trough green bit of plastic. I could play like that for hours, trying to figure out how this magic was possible. I did all kinds of test; one eye green, one eye red, looking through multiple layers of colored cellophane, crumpling the cellophane up and smoothing it out. I remember the shock every time I would look at the world without looking through the small colored filters. The world looked so real, so obvious and so clear it would almost hurt my eyes.

While growing up I think we all get some “cellophane” stuck on our way of looking at the world. Sometimes I’m very aware of my tinted way of preserving reality and I know it is very easy to let my view become tainted. I’m also aware of the tinted and tainted perceptions of others. My tendency is to take in account their colored views and ease new information about myself in gradually or leave whole clumps of myself out as a way of protecting myself.

Now I don’t mind confronting tainted views when the need arises, I can stand up for myself and I think I do a good job of standing up for the world or groups of sentient beings that need protection from harmful opinions. But I must say I’m very careful and protective when it comes to disclosing things about others, for I can not adjust someone’s view or protect individuals from stained looks.

The thing that gets me most lately is the more I learn to see the world as it really is, the more I become aware of the enormous amount of colored cellophane we all carry with us. We view the world, others and on ourselves with unclear eyes. How we hope it will protect us from harm and how save we feel behind tinted glass.

Doing away with the bits of cellophane can hurt and looking at the world with clear eyes is not pain free and there will be nothing to hide behind, but then again, there will be nothing to hide for or from.