The Man at the Pond (On Points of View)

I often wonder how much of ourselves we project onto the world around us. How often do we abstract the intentions of others through our own perceptions?

Here is a photograph, a man sitting in front of an empty pond. The man in the image has a story, real and unknown.

And there is the story we construct for him, taken from the experience within ourselves.

Mine goes...

As the years flowed by, friends and family fell by the wayside. Age has stolen his joy piece by piece. 

He is overcome. 

Here, a realization that his days are at an end. A final lament for an unaccomplished life lived too long...

This is what I perceive, a manifestation of my fears, anxiety for the highest form of failure, being insignificant and alone. A failure at life.

With certainty the story you construct will be different. An accomplished man may feel peace at life well led. Another may replace my inherent despair with unbridled satisfaction, or substitute my fear of failure with the desire for quiet contemplation.

Perhaps you see nothing at all.

What we see is not what is. I believe we are not what we perceive each other to be. The images we see do not adhere to the confines of our tales. Our understanding of the world is limited and uninformed; the bases of our decisions are founded upon incomplete information. Confidence in our personal perceptions is the seed of conflict.

I would like to see the world as others do, if only to better know myself.