I’m not a scientist, but this question has always interested me, especially since I have often wondered why I don’t see air. I can see trees swaying, birds flying, planes overhead, and snow blowing, but I can’t see the actual air. Why not?
When I look at the ocean, I see a clear line where the air stops and the water begins. When I am in water, I can see some things, but the water around makes it blurry.
One day, as I thought about the fish in the ocean and how things are blurry to me under the water, I wondered how it looked to them when they jumped into the air. Do they see air? Does it look like water to them? If so, do they see water, or do they move around in the ocean without seeing the water around them, just like I move around without seeing the air?
These questions made me think about our mind and how it works. I am a father of seven children, and my mind learns to tune out common child noises. I worked at a silver refinery and stopped noticing the strange smells that permeated the air there. I live next to the freeway and tune out most of the noise from the cars.
In other words, when my mind is exposed to identical stimuli over and over again, it learns to not pay attention to it. My mind is limited in its ability to focus, so it has to learn to tune out stimuli that are not relevant.
Does the same principle apply to air for me, and water for the fish? Do our minds learn to tune it out so that we can see other things around us? Is it actually visible, but we don’t see it because of how pervasive it is?
If so, what does that mean for some of the most basic truths that permeate our lives?
If the truths are so pervasive that they are always with us, do our minds learn to tune them out?
Think about that for a minute. If our minds are not capable of focusing on more than a few things, or processing more than a certain amount of incoming stimuli, what truths do our minds learn to tune out?
If air is so commonplace to the mind that we tune it out, what would we do with something even more commonplace or pervasive?
I often think about things that I do not see, yet believe in. I believe in God and that He loves me and everyone here, but it is often very difficult to see God’s hand or His love with everything else that is going on.
What if this was because God’s hand was so pervasive and permeated so much of our existence that our minds had to tune it out to be able to focus on the other things around us?
What if the old adage that ‘God is everywhere’ is true? And what if we can’t see God because our mind has to limit the sheer volume of stimuli here to function?
What if the goodness inside of people was actually so prevalent that it was very difficult for us to see it every day, unless the goodness went above and beyond the normal, similar to the wind?
What if we were loved and appreciated by more people than we realized, but because love and appreciation were so prevalent, we tuned them out too?
What if the role and value of family was so transcendent to our existence that we could not fully see all of the ways it impacts or helps us?
I don’t fully know the extent to which we see or don’t see truths. However, one of the main principles of science and religion is to question and believe in other possibilities.
Before the Wright brothers ever flew, they first believed they could fly.
Before anyone ever made it to space, rocket scientists first believed they could get there.
Our achievements in life come when we first believe, then act.
If we want to find God, we have to first believe. If we want to find good, we have to first believe. If we want to know truth, we have to first believe.
Whether or not air is really visible, or water is visible to fish, we all know our minds can tune out too much stimuli. In other words, we know we cannot fully rely on our own senses.
If we believe first, what does it unlock inside of us? Can we start to find and understand truths that are so pervasive that we would not see them otherwise?
I fully believe there is much good in the world, and that the world’s best days are still ahead. We can build good if we first believe it is possible. Once we truly believe, we start to see and find paths and ways to make it happen.
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