”Our perceptual habits, conscious or unconscious, become our reality. Another way to say this is that we tend to see the world as we believe it to be, unless we consciously choose to attend to what we haven’t yet seen, to notice the unexpected elements of the world. Ultimately, attention is the true power of vision.” – Laura Sewall, Sight and Sensibility
What do you choose to attend to, or not? In the 30 Days of Perception workshop, we spend a lot of time noticing where our attention goes and, just as importantly, where it doesn’t. Minds are selective and many things are overlooked out of necessity. However, it’s important to understand how what you don’t see affects how you perceive the world.
With attention pulled in so many directions, you might be missing a whole layer of richness right in front of you.
The word overlooked literally means to look over, to look beyond, to look past. Have you ever felt overlooked? I think I know the answer to that question. My answer is yes, definitely, and it doesn’t feel good. Attention is naturally drawn towards objects, mostly big, shiny ones; ones deemed beautiful or important. Or to the loudest voices, those with the most power. How would your experience of life change if you paid more attention to things in your everyday perceptions that you normally don’t see, ignore, or outright dismiss?
You don’t have to see everything; that would for sure lead to overwhelm. But what might you be missing? That’s the question. There’s richness in the world that’s not big and shiny. There’s also richness in the space between, the invisible part of the world that still affects our experience of life. In his essay, The Trouble with Being, Patrick Shen writes,
“Why did I allow my curiosities to be defined by the ticking, the words, and not the spaces in between, I wondered. In my desperation to understand more about navigating this life it seems I failed to consider the other half of things.” (Notes on Silence)
Sometimes you need to do the most work with what is most familiar. Whether it’s your everyday surroundings, the people you see every day, or things you’ve judged to be “ordinary,” you can practice seeing them freshly, noticing that they’re there, part of your world and your perceptions. Besides visual perceptions, the way we see the world is often defined by the prevailing societal narrative. Those narratives can change when the story is reframed by bringing in factors previously overlooked.
Here are a few examples of addressing what has been or is being overlooked and changing the narrative.
Maria Popova’s incredible book, Figuring, looks at highly accomplished, yet overlooked women (and men) from the 18th and 19th centuries. People like Maria Mitchell, America’s first professional woman astronomer and Margaret Fuller, writer and critic who inspired Thoreau;s Walden. Others like the poet, Emily Dickinson, and science writer Rachel Carson. It helped me to reshape my historical narrative.
Along the same vein, the New York Times is posting overlooked obituaries – in an attempt to correct their own narrative about what was important to report. This is a series about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.
Nature writer Robert Macfarlane and illustrator Jackie Morris are restoring language through their incredible book, The Lost Words. Included are words that were erased from the dictionary for lack of use. Katharine Norbury of the Guardian writes,
“I once asked a magician what he considered to be the defining characteristic of his art. “Directing the gaze”, he said. The Lost Words is a beautiful book and, in terms of ideas, an important one. Re-enchantment, re-engagement and conservation of the natural world is ultimately only going to be possible if we retain the language with which to make it happen.”
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World is a delightful music documentary. The Hollywood Reporter called it “revelatory” in that it shows the powerful influence of Native Americans and Canadians on the popular music we know and love. Eye opening for sure, and sad too that these musicians often went unrecognized.
Photographer Uta Barth specializes in photographing the normally unseen parts of our perceptions, our visual world. She specializes in the art of looking itself. Here’s an example of her work, [Nowhere Near.](http://utabarth.net/work/nowhere-near/) In an article about this series and her approach, she reframes photography itself by focusing entirely on how we see and what we overlook.
Ways to Change your Narrative
A new year is coming soon and, while that date is arbitrary – you can start anything new at any time – it might be a good time to intentionally practice seeing what you overlook.
Read: Articles, poems, or books are great perception shifters. Reading about the perspectives and experiences of others who have lived lives completely different from your own can change the way you think and evoke empathy. For the past few years, I’ve intentionally focused a large portion of my reading on black voices, indigenous voices, and the voices of young people. I’ve also learned to appreciate the power of poetry to get to the heart of the matter. And, of course, our news sources have a great impact on how we see the world. It’s always good to change those up occasionally.
Watch: As for books, so goes for what you watch, whether that be on TV, movies, YouTube or TikTok videos. Again, I’ve focused on indigenous and black voices. Watch a documentary on something you normally wouldn’t.
Listen: Podcasts are another way to expand your perspective. Scene on Radio is one with its series on Seeing White and Men. On Being with Krista Tippett is a perennial classic which has evolved over the years. Their tag line is “pursuing deep thinking, social courage, moral imagination and joy, to renew inner life, outer life, amd life together.” Recently, I’ve enjoyed The Slowdown by previous U.S. poet laureate, Tracy K Smith. She introduces a poem a day with a short reflection. Of course, speaking of attention, my friend Daron Larson has a new podcast called The Art of Attention, and I was lucky to be a guest. All three episodes posted so far are excellent.
On another note, I personally try to go out to hear live music as often as possible. It’s a great way to open the senses and heart.
Of course reading, watching, and listening are only first steps. Next would be to have in-person involvement and conversations with people who have different experiences than you. Or to get involved with an organization that’s doing important work to address issues we’re facing.
Learn: You’re never too old to learn something new. Take a class, whether online or in-person in something brand new. Get out of your comfort zone. This year I’ve been dipping into learning how to speak a little French for an upcoming trip. I’ve also been delving into poetry, conservation, and birdsong.
Photograph: Of course, I’m a firm believer in practicing every day to see the familiar in new ways with my camera. In the perceptions course, participants were asked to pause occasionally throughout their day to notice what they normally overlook, whether an object or the effects of sunlight or a familiar person or just the overall scene. They noticed the space between things as well as relationships; seeing what is hidden in plain sight. Starting with the ground beneath your feet can be a most enlightening exercise. Seeing what you overlook can bring a breath of fresh air into daily life. May I also recommend the Adventures in Seeing book?