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I’m looking forward to reading your input to a series of thoughts on exegeting culture. Enjoy.
London, England
4.44 PM
Most of us believe we know what we think we see. Then there are those who see the invisible.
Erica, my (then) 14 year old daughter, and I were outbound on a mission into the heart of Europe, and passed the time chatting as we walked through LAX (aka Los Angeles International Airport).
It’s like drawing, she said. “Drawing is all about learning to see.”
Yes, drawing is all about learning to see, I said.
The inexperienced artist –that would be me — tries to draw by memory rather than by observation, by what we think we see rather than what we see. In other words, most of us sketch by looking more at our sketch pad than the subject we are sketching.
“Watch mom draw sometime,” she said. “You’ll notice how much she looks away from her drawing and towards what she is trying to draw. She really tries to see the subject. Learning to draw is all about learning to see.
For example, Erica, I said, As we walked towards the gates. Most people in this airport don’t know about the Red Carpet Rooms.
What’s that?
They’re lounges used by frequent flyers and business people, I said.
Suddenly, as if coordinated by the finger of God, the wall to our left opened. The doors were painted in such a way that it blended with the walls on both sides well. One would have to know it was there to see it.
“There,†I said feeling quite like a magician. We both walked looking left-ward through the wall into a room of comfortable chairs with a bar and tvs.
Whoa, she said. The sliding doors closed. What was that?
I looked up to read the signs to make sure we’re going in the right direction.
Gates 70-77
Restrooms
Red Carpet Room
“Check it out,” I said.
Erica looked up and read the signs with amazement. Suddenly all of the clues began to pop up and out. The world was new. She knew what she was seeing. a whole new world existed behind this wall that was not a wall but a door, a sliding door. And signs pointing to it were everywhere. Red Carpet Room, Erica said.
I love it when she nods her head and gets this smile on her face, like she’s been let in on a little secret. Red Carpet Room, I said.
People draw what they think they see not what they’re looking at. Learning to draw, learning to lead, and learning to live have this in common: it’s all about learning to see.
What do you think?
Into the mystic…
Alex McManus
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