I See You: A Moment with Bill Reflection

From a song called “In Your Eyes” by Dan Hill

“In your eyes
I can see my dreams reflections
In your eyes
I found the answers to my questions
In your eyes
I can see the reason why our love's alive
In your eyes
We're drifting safely back to shore
And I think I've finally learned to love you more”

Thank you, Dan. Now I can proceed.

I was watching a Ted Talks video the other day. I love Ted Talks, by the way, but that’s an article for another day. Anyway, I’m watching this video of some photographer who has travelled the world taking pictures in some of the most remote places on Earth, pictures of peoples few of us have seen or even heard of, peoples like the Sentinelese in Eastern India, the Jarawa, the Ruc and the Pintupi.

And it was fascinating!

There was one group of people, and I apologize because I don’t remember their collective name, who wouldn’t allow this photographer to take their picture until he lived with them for awhile and got to know them as real human beings. He didn’t understand why they were so concerned about having their picture taken, but he acquiesced to their wishes and eventually he was rewarded with some magnificent photos.

Anyway, the point of this talk was this photographer’s questioning of himself. He wanted to know why he took pictures. He wanted to know why it was so important that he do so, and did his pictures have any value for anyone?

And then one day, after taking pictures for decades, he was given the answer to his question.

This photographer was discussing his dilemma with a friend. The friend listened carefully and when the photographer had talked himself out, the friend suggested an answer. He told the photographer to look closely at one particular close-up of a young woman who had been captured in picture. “Look at her eyes,” the friend implored. “The answer is in her eyes.”

So the photographer took the picture and he enlarged it, and then he took a magnifying glass and he looked at the young woman’s eyes, and staring back at him was his own reflection.

“She sees you,” his friend said. “You have become a part of her.”

A profound statement, my friends.

I see you; thus, you have become a part of me.

You see me; thus, I have become a part of you.

There’s this box on the closet shelf in our bedroom. Dust covers it for in truth, it’s not opened very often. Inside the box are photos….hundreds of photos…photos of family and friends from my lifetime….most of them are gone now….many I lost track of over the years….but they all have two things in common….

I became a part of them, and they became a part of me.

There’s my dad, dead since 1969, and mom, gone since 2003. Sister Darlys, Grandma Belva, Grandpa Mike, aunts and uncles, friends and foes, casual acquaintances and close associates, Mary, Pete, Eli, Nancy, Jake, Jack, Dan, Melissa, Sandy, Doug, Theresa, Tyler, Bev…..look closely and there I am, reflected in their eyes, and them in mine.

I became a part of them, and they became a part of me.

Simple science, kids! The camera lens focuses light on the film. The cornea focuses light on the retina. Light enters the cornea, filters through the aqueous humor to the iris, and in the iris is the pupil, which expands or contracts to control the amount of light. Muscles surround the lens, hold it in place and also pull on and flatten the lens, allowing the eye to see objects close up and far away. Onward we go to the vitreous humor and finally to the retina, and within the retina are millions of light-sensitive cells, known as rods and cones. Light strikes the rods and cones, they are converted into electrical signals and relayed to the brain via the optic nerve.

And the brain translates the electrical signals into images that we see.

Simple science, kids!

But what happens next ain’t so simple, is it?

We see the image, but do we retain it?

We see the image, but do we understand its importance?

I became a part of them, and they became a part of me.

The next step is crucial for our growth as human beings. We must take that image and implant it on our hearts. We must make it part of our being. As the Walrus said, I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together…..

Well, there has to be awareness, doesn’t there?

There has to be willingness.

There has to be a tearing down of emotional and psychological barriers.

There has to be an understanding of the commonalities in us all.

There has to be an embracing of our humanness and a desire to form a bond.

Only when those things happen will that image that we see become a lasting part of who we are.

I see you, but do I really see you?

You see me, but do you really see me?

I hope so.

For the sake of us all.

2015 William D. Holland (aka billybuc)