This Is This

Familiarity is a weird thing - you don’t pick up on things around you until you notice them.

What I mean is this:

You meet someone with a wonderful name, and then suddenly you start hearing and seeing that name around, but you know it’s always been there, you’ve just had no reason to notice it before.

Another example is that someone tells you they’ve bought one a certain make of car. “Yeah,” you say, “I think I’ve seen those around.” You recall spotting one, but you’re not sure where or how long ago it was. Then on the way home, you see three of them.

I think there’s more at work here than market forces. Your friend may have bought the car under the same influence as the other people snapping them up, like advertising and fashion, but I think it’s your own mindfulness changing your perception of the world around you. By paying attention to the things you make an emotional connection with, your experience of the world changes.

The next time you have pancakes, really notice them. Or the smell of wet grass, - ooooh: the wheels on your car - make a link between yourself, what’s going on and stuff out there. You’re changing the world.

Also on This Is This
Them: Would you like insurance?
Me: Why? Are you going to lose it?
Them: We will try not to. But if we do, you will be covered if you take out our insurance.
Me: How likely are you to lose it?
Them: I can not answer that, Sir.
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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 18th, 2006 at 8:55 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed, or leave a comment yourself.