Take a Deeper Look

"Everything is not what is seems."

This line is from the theme song to the Disney show Wizards of Waverly Place. It seems that recently I see this idea in a lot of places. It's a completely true statement; a statement which I believe we can learn quite a bit from.

First, a little bit about when I really started to think about this idea. I'd like to call the idea appearance versus reality because that's how I first heard it. In my American Romanticism literature class, we were Melville a few weeks ago. First, we read "Bartleby, the Scriviner" and then Benito Cereno. When digging into the stories, they both deal with the idea that what appears to be and what really is are very different things. I am even going to do my big final paper on this idea in Benito Cereno. That book was the one that really began me on my thought journey through this idea. Benito Cereno is written, in its first half, in what John Granger calls "narrative misdirection." It's when the author uses third person to write the story, yet we still only see the story through the eyes and mind of one main character. This narrative voice is how the vast majority of the Harry Potter series is written, and it is the reason why we as readers are thrown off from what is really going on. And unlike with first person, it's not quite so obvious that someone's thoughts of people and events are clouding our own judgements. It's very facinating how this all works! Then I began to see the idea in all sorts of places: more books, tv, movies....and real life!

So what can we learn from this idea? Well, appearances really do no always, and probably even hardly ever, reflect what is really true and real! How many times do we judge people we do not even know and then come to find out that we were completely wrong? How many times have we misjudged a situation by what we think we see or by one person's story, when we do not have the full truth of what has really happened? Our life is filled with the idea of appearance versus reality.Even our learning can be affected by this truth. History is written by the winners, right? How much of what we learn is just one person's or people group's story and the whole reality is actually missing? I'm sure we could have a very long conversation about this idea because it is so vastly important and pervades all of life, I believe!

So don't be too quick to judge things and people. What we think we see may not, and possibly is often not, what is reality. Think deeper about things and try to really get to the truth as much as possible. It may sound cheesy but disney's Pochahontas had somethign right: "If you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you'll learn things you never knew you never knew."