Differences that Separate: Illusion and Reality

A friend of mine shared a classic optical illusion with me recently: the imposition of two portraits - a hybrid of two well-known personalities.  Even though I had seen this image many years before, I now found myself struggling to see either person.  At first I saw specific features (hair, noses, and ears), but I couldn't quite make out a full image of either person.

The trick, I relearned, was a combination of holding the picture closer or farther away, squinting or opening my eyes fully, and looking directly at the photo and then moving my focus to the right or left.

Optical Illusions: Who do you see? 
 + Click on image for a larger version +

(Photo credit:  Mirror, March 21, 2014)

This optical illusion reminded me of a photo I had taken while spending a few days on Santa Catalina Island.  I liked the symmetry of the building, so I took the photo.  But, when I looked at the photo several weeks later, I had difficulty recalling if the image was of a curved wall with ledges (bench-seating) -- or -- was it the ceiling of the building.  Looking at the photo below, what do you think: curved wall or ceiling?

Illusion vs Reality: Is this a wall with bench-seating
or a ceiling with arches?
(Wrigley Memorial and Botanical Garden, Santa Catalina)

It seems that life is filled with contrasts between illusions (definition: something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality) and reality itself (definition: a real thing or fact; something that exists independently of ideas concerning it).

As we progressed through the Dialogue Practicum several years ago, my co-learners and I were encouraged to take a "long, loving look at the Real."  Today, as I listen to the rhetoric of competing ideologies and stances, I wonder:

• How do we -- individually and collectively -- distinguish between illusion and reality?
• Can we set aside our long-held beliefs to listen to another perspective?
• Is there a way to dispel the labeling and negativity that separates us?

Learning to create and break the bubbles of illusion
(Balboa Park, San Diego)

Consider the soap bubbles we played with as children.  Through a simple breath of air, a shape emerges and becomes airborne.  Gentle breezes direct the newborn bubble in various directions, but eventually it bursts.  The reality of gravity directs the bubble downward.  The fragile nature of its iridescent walls cannot withstand the sharp edges of the real world.  Illusion meets reality.

Maybe our ideas, hypotheses, and beliefs are similar.  They are born as we try to discover or understand our world.  But, as we come together and dialogue -- share information, perceptions, and opposing beliefs -- a new reality begins to emerge: common unity; concern for others; shared understanding; and a belief that we can only survive... together!

Like the portrait of converging images, maybe we are invited to step back... or aside, look differently at what is presented, and hold two (or more) perspectives in focus at the same time.  Through dialogue, maybe the illusions we hold need to be tested against a Long, Loving Look, allowing the gravity of what is Real to emerge.

May this week invite moments where we are challenged to see Reality.  May we have an opportunity to take a longer, more loving look at each other.  May we see what draws us together.

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting

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