seeing what you wanted to see

two days ago, i updated my facebook status as follows: "visually, i am reminded of the days when i was in china during winter and when there was a blanket of fog. so pretty :-)"  and it was truly that i thought it looked pretty. and i had that feel when i was driving and had my aircon blasting. so, the haze added to the mood and ... anyway, soon enough, a friend commented that fog and haze are different. and another quickly added that this one has a "burnt smell"... and so on and so forth.

hmmm... i think they had really missed out my first and most important word - "visually". and reading their comments, it reminded me of how they had seen what they wanted to see and felt what they wanted to feel. perhaps it is a case of us being conditioned over time. if it is haze, it can only be hot, smelly, filthy, and unhealthy. there is nothing possibly good about it. and in believing this, it is easy to miss out the word "visually", simply becos the brain had decided (or learned) not to register it despite reading it. come to think of it, it can be rather scary. and along the same lines, it is no different from stereotyping - if you are of a particular race, you must be ____ (fill in the blanks), if you are gay, you must be promiscuous, la la la... you get the drift.

in this very simple experience, i was reminded of some very fundamental buddhist teachings. i was reminded of how we should know and just know. and i repeat, know and just know. accept the situation. embrace the present, accept the difficulties and just move on. no need to complain. no need to react. much less, no need to over-react. you cannot wish things away just because you complain about them. and of cos, it would do us a lot of good to see things from a slightly different perspective if it allows us to adapt better to our current surroundings. and rather than bitch about it and wallow in the negatives, why not accept it, and if possible, see the silver lining out of the situation and move on. right? and oh, for the record - no, i don't like the haze. my asthma can get worked up if it were to carry on like this for a few more days. and when that happens, it can be very uncomfortable. but well, instead of complaining, i supposed i would just keep myself indoors and enjoy the indoor environment. right?

:-)