A Blind Mind

I love this picture. Not just because I'm in it, ;) but because it is a perfect candid shot. 

I don't remember it being taken. I don't remember seeing the camera.

It was by mere happenstance that I came into possession of this picture.

I love the commotion-- it's NYC-- energy, people, traffic, noise... and then just me. Standing there. Silent in that mass of crazy.

Isn't that how our lives are sometimes? Full of total chaos and every once in a while, we notice someone who has filled the background of our lives, because for a split second, something happened to make us notice.

That's probably my favorite question to ask people-- "At what point did you notice me?"

At what point did I become a still figure in a teeming crowd of chaos?

Today while I was intermediately working on my thesis and Facebook stalking, I had a thought.

This thought began with the reception of a simple "hello" partnered with a compliment.

Which then turned into a "hmmmm" on my part.

Which then led to a moment of stalking the person.

Which then led to research stalking on Facebook.

Which then developed into the statement, "why weren't you ever this awesome before?"

I recently finished reading a book called Blink. Its main focus is pointing out how much information we take in during a split second first impression.. information we can't really put words to.

For most people, our split second first impressions of them are relatively unimportant.

We forget about them ten seconds later.

Every so often someone makes a special impression on us but for the most part.. we simply don't care.

It's not something we can really change.. we meet thousands of people in our lifetime and boring unattached first impressions are bound to happen.

But my thought today is on what I'll call a second, first impression.

Sometimes, months after we've been subconsciously ignoring someone, they do something that catches our attention and we can, in a way, have a new first impression of them.

Whether this is expressed as a mental "Oh!" "Aha!" "Hmmmm" or "Whaaaaaat???",

it sometimes happens.

And I am grateful for second, first impressions. 

They give me a chance to discover something beautiful in someone who has always been beautiful (which I can see now as I look back) but I had already dismissed them from my attention.

Cheers.