“We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.”

— Anaïs Nin

The quote above struck me as some daily insight gained when I read it. I am not familiar with Anais Nin other than the brief bio shown here, but I think we have much in common. She was a diarist/essayist as I claim to be. It is almost an addiction when we see something that we want to say a few words about. For me, it is 500 words or less here at RJsCorner. I can’t really recall where this quote came from. It was just scribbled onto my e-notes and surfaced recently.

Ok, let’s get back to the quote itself.

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It is a well-known fact that every person sees most things using personal experiences. How can it be otherwise? Those personal experiences come from life lessons learned, or from something we are told to believe. Being that my life’s motto is

Think for yourself, Question Everything, Never Stop Learning

I just don’t put a lot of faith in the second method to obtain life experiences. Believing what someone tells you to believe is the primary source of the major problems in the world. Let’s just get down and flatly state that is how prejudices are established. We prejudge someone simply because we are told to! I could give you some examples, but I’m sure you can come up with dozens of examples yourself, so I won’t bother.

Instead of just taking things people tell you are the “truth”, always step back and reach into your gut to see if there is any validity to those words. If people just did that there would have been fewer wars, infinitely less hate, and more love in this world.

None of us see things as “they” are, but instead as we are. Wise words to live by.