monocle view

if you hurt what's mine
I'll sure as hell retaliate
~ "Safe from Harm", Massive Attack

The human brain is one mighty powerful chicken flavored lump. We have the great capacity to retain and recall, stretching our minds around a seemingly limitless multitude of inputs. Just consider how many faces we can recognize. We can discern them in their youth before we knew them or recognize them behind the old age make-up or under that new hairstyle. We know many actors and performers from nearly all conceivable angles broad enough to identify them in a Picasso.

Yet sometimes we catch a glimpse of ourselves in a photograph and wonder if that's really how the world sees us. The view we get from our own reflection in those portal opening ninety degree dressing room mirrors or in that brief spinach in the teeth check in that little compact can never fully do justice. We can never fully see what others see. And we can never fully comprehend the motivations of others, since we're each constantly getting a grasp on ourselves.

I think again of the war of silence waged between my sister and my parents. My sister is loathe to the fact that I continue to forge a relationship with my parents and they leave open the occasional silence in our conversations to allow for me to interject a bit or two about her. But I don't. The whole matter creates an uncomfortable underlying awkwardness. They are both right to protect their interests and their perspectives, but unfortunately like such an unfortunate common theme of late, loyalties become split and questioned, or used as a commodity.

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