20 20 Vision
Like many people, I have myopia or short sightedness. I can see things that are only two or three inches from my face, but I can’t recognize my wife across the room.
Myopia is caused because the distance from the lens at the front of the eye, to the retina at the back, is greater than normal. This causes images to focus in front of my retina. Fortunately, my problem can easily be overcome with corrective lenses, which make the light rays converge exactly on the retina, producing a sharply focussed image.
People with normal vision are described as having twenty/twenty vision. On the basis of a substantial number of eye examinations, eye doctors have been able to determine what normal people should be able to see when they stand twenty feet away from the eye chart. 20/20 vision means that your vision is typical of what ‘normal’ people would see when they too stand twenty feet from the optometrist’s chart.
20/30 vision means that at twenty feet away from the eye chart, you see what someone with good vision can see when standing thirty feet from the eye chart. 20/20 is not necessarily perfect vision. A person with 20/10 vision can see from twenty feet away what the average person can only see by standing ten feet from the chart. The hawk might even have vision eight times better than yours, say 20/2 vision!
So next time you think you have good eyesight, think hawks, and quit bragging!
The visual acuity of the great birds of prey is legendary. He has “eyes like a hawk” commonly describes one who doesn’t miss anything going on around him. Good observation gives us an important resource for correctly interpreting reality.
Most of us have made mistakes based on incorrect observation. I once heard of a man in a crowd taking the hand of a woman he’d never met before, simply because her clothing was similar to what his wife was wearing that evening. He got off lightly with nothing more than embarrassment.
Decisions and actions based on a faulty view of something can have much more dire consequences. Misinterpreting someone’s facial expression or body language can cause us to act in a way which hinders the development of positive regard for that person. Misunderstanding a friend’s comment can easily lead to a rift in a relationship. The possibilities for negative consequences from not seeing things clearly are endless.
While misperceptions can be the cause of social awkwardness, they can result in real danger at the spiritual level. Attitudes of inclusiveness and tolerance, which are helpful in social contexts, do not fit well in the spiritual realm. Two opposing “truths” cannot both be right.
Though some are loath to cite “absolutes” to govern moral behaviour, we accept them in the material world without a second thought. Physical laws affect our lives so constantly and at such a profound level,that we are unaware of them - just as we are unaware of the life-sustaining air which surrounds us.
While different religions offer different answers to life’s questions, we must avoid the common hazard of thinking that they ultimately are all the same or that they do not matter. Because we are each only confronted with our own death once, we do not often think about the consequences of our attitudes and behaviour in life and death terms.
Just as various treatments are sought to sharpen our physical vision so that our perception of the world around us is accurate, so we must do what we can to avoid the fuzzy philosophical thinking which causes us to not see the Truth clearly.
David Humphreys and Ron Hughes
