“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.”
― Edgar Allan Poe
“The vanity of others runs counter to our taste only when it runs counter to our vanity.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
“Perception and reality are two different things.”
― Tom Cruise
Something must be amiss in the world when I am quoting Poe, Nietzsche, and Tom Cruise all at the same time, and this picture paints it in a thousand words. On second thought, make that two hundred pounds worth of paint.
We all have an impression of ourselves. We also all have a blind spot. More on that in a moment.
Jake and the Fatman was a television series that ran from the late 80′s into the early 90′s. I always wondered why someone would name a show like that. I guess this picture, too, paints a thousand words, and the show’s title sums it up in four. I see a slick well dressed character known as Jake, and I see a fat man. Rest in peace, William Conrad.
Around the time the larger in life Mr. Conrad died, another soul was being born. Her parents named her Hannah. Somehow, the church secretary in a little town in West Texas heard and wrote down that a baby boy had arrived, and that he had been named “Jake”, and it was announced to their little world as such.
Fast forward 20 years. The kid we jokingly nicknamed Jake is all grown up and in college. While she was channeling her internal “Mushu” last fall and was off saving China, several of her college buddies were off studying in Europe. It just so happens that I was there with them for a week, and thus we have the picture up top.
I was looking thru (some would call it creeping thru) some of Hannah’s friend’s web posts some time ago, and I saw this picture. My immediate thought (truth be told, no joke)? “Who is that grumpy looking fat man walking behind Hannah’s friends?”. Dramatic pause, gasp, arrival of reality realization: “That is me”.
You see, all of my younger life, I was indeed a fairly skinny, below average waist sized man. Today, “off the rack” popular average middle age man sizes fit a little more snuggly than I would like. Blame it on way too many Wiener-schnitzels from Figelmueler that week in Europe, among other things.
My point, or points, today? I still, in my minds eye, see myself as that young skinny guy playing with little Jake on the deck not so many moons ago. That is my perception. Adjusting what I think and feel to the reality that is seen thru the camera lens of others? That should be my reality, and I should encourage and allow myself to look at situations from other’s perspectives.
And, I need to be OK with all of that. It appears to be reality.
“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.”
― Edgar Allan Poe
“The vanity of others runs counter to our taste only when it runs counter to our vanity.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
“Perception and reality are two different things.”
― Tom Cruise
“Ich habe das Wiener-schnitzel“.
- Bing
