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| Rose-colored glasses |
It's neither as bad or as good as you think.
We humans have a consistent and annoying propensity to allow emotion to color our perception of reality. The inevitable results of such coloring are the making of really, really bad decisions.
If you doubt me, then the interested reader only has to turn his mind back a few years to the midst of the housing bubble. Banks made bad loans, knowing that the loan was backed by a house that had to be going up in value. Somebody pointed out that the emperor had no clothes on, and the bottom fell out of the market, banks lost billions, and many families lost their homes.
Is that reference too cerebral? Consider, dear reader, how that just about every four years we throw out one president, so sure that the next guy will do something different. We become quickly disillusioned and throw him out as well.
People amaze me with their capacity to ignore reality to make it conform to their ideas of what it should be.
The easies way to to explain this is by an example. While this example applies to both men and women, for ease of explanation assume a young woman is madly in love with a man. She sees no wrong he does, and often overlooks warning signs of problems yet to come.
If someone would ask her how the relationship is going, she'd be enthusiastic in her appraisal, even though those closest to her may have differing opinions.
A few years later, and those warning signs she ignored has ground the giddy joy out of her relationship. Her disappointment and hurt color her eyes, and she only sees problems, completely blind to any good that may be present.
Once again, if someone were to ask her how her relationship was going, she'd tell that someone how horrible and terrible it is, while her friends and family would point out the good with the bad.
The reality in both circumstances was not what the young lady though that it was. Reality was somewhere in the middle. Making serious decisions based upon emotionally filtered reality causes pain.
We often times exaggerate our problems or our blessings to the point of insanity. When the world seems totally wrong, or totally right, usually we're just getting emotional.
Andrew's Proverb 23 says "The way a man sees the world defines the man to the world as much as the world to the man."
We should strive to see the world as it is, and act accordingly. Thankfully, our perception of the world is within our control.
Andrew's Proverb 23 says "The way a man sees the world defines the man to the world as much as the world to the man."
We should strive to see the world as it is, and act accordingly. Thankfully, our perception of the world is within our control.
