A friend of mine wrote in a post how she see's me,which I wish was the way I see myself.But then we always see ourself's different than others see us. It reminded me of a poem that I found in a Texans motel in the late sixties,entitled "The Man in the Mirror". the author is unknown but almost fifty years later I still remember it. So that you might enjoy it,here it is:
The Man in the Mirror
When you get what you want in the struggle for life and the world makes you king for a day'
Just go to the mirror and look at yourself and see what that man has to say.
He's the fellow to please never mind all the rest,for he's with you clear to the end,
And you passed your most dangerous difficult test,if the man in the glass is your friend.
You may win the whole world and get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartache and tears,if you cheated the man in the glass.
Or as Shakespeare once said,"This above all to thine ownself be true,And it must follow as the night the day,Thou canst not then be false to any man." Both in the poem and in the quote of Shakespeare the theme is; be true to what you believe to be true and don't worry about how others see you. It doesn't matter.The only thing that matters is how you see yourself. Good or Bad it will be reflected back when you look at yourself.So I guess it is not that unusual that you would see yourself differently than others see you.Therefore my advice is when someone gives you a complement accept it,and don't worryif it's not how you see yourself.
Since its Sunday and I want to keep it somewhat light,I will keep this post short.Hope you enjoyed the poem,I know I have for the last forty some odd years.One last thought. In my mind I still see myself in my late twenty's or early thirty's; so every morning when I look into the bathroom mirror,I see my reflection and ask this question,"Who in the Hell is that person,that can't be me.!" What can I say except Have a great day everyone.
Lovely theme Tichard. It made me giigle though because of an incident with my mother last year.
ReplyDeleteMum has had detached retinas in both eyes. The right retina split badly and she was left with a hugh 'hole' in the center of her vision in that eye and only limited peripheral vision. This was in the 70's. Ten years later her left retina went as well. The repare was much more successful partly because ot was caught earlier and partlt because laser techniques had come along.
Anyway. Mum had always been extremely short sighted (myopic), needing complex lenses to see at all. When Mum developed cataracts in both eyes they grew very quickly and left her nearly blind. The surgeons would not operate because there was a strong possibility it would cause more problems in the retina leaving her completely blind. Since Mum is an acute clostrophobe, this was a nightmare scenario for her.
Last year, Mums vision got to the point where she was having trouble telling light from dark and I practicallt frog-marched her to the specialist again. After much examination, the specialist (appropriately names Mr. Hero) told Mum that he thought there was a very good chance that, due to improved techniques, they could now operate successfully.
After a bit of soul-searching, Mum decided to go ahead with the operation on her good eye only as, if the worst happened, she would still have light and dark recognition to some degree in the peripheral vision in her left eye.
The operation was postponed twice because the surgeon was ill and no-one else would do it.
Finally, last June, the operation, just day surgery, took place. Mum knew they were changing the lens in that eye but what the surgeon had not told her (because theu didn't want to get her hope up too high, was that they were installing a strong lens which would give her greatly improved vision.
Two days after the op. we were back to have the dressing removed and for the sugeon th check his work. Bandages off and eye examened in the dark, the surgeon positioned a mirror and switched the light on. Looking in a mirror for the first time in twenty years and seeing her reflection my mother responded with the exclamation...
'Who's thet old woman? Good God! It's me!'
Not the expected reaction but all the nursing staff and the surgeon collapsed laughing.
Anyway, Mum now has better vision than I have.
Moral? Maybe it is not that we are as iold as we feel but that we are as old as we see ourselves to be. Mu still 'saw' herself to be in her fifties, not her eighties, and behaved accordingly.
excuse typos. I wish this had spellcheck. My brain gets ahead of my typign fingers.
ReplyDeleteDon't apologize,I make typing mistakes all the time. The dictonary and I are on very good,and inimate terms.
ReplyDeleteWhen we look at ourselves in the mirror, we see only one-half of ourselves; all the flaws. Lol! In fact we usually judge ourselves pretty harshly and magnify our flaws.
ReplyDeleteIf we were able to see ourselves the way that others see us we would likely be able to avoid many of the mistakes that we make and hopefully avoid some of our crazy ideas, especially about ourselves. ~.^ Helena
If we could only find a way to befriend that person in the mirror...I wonder does that reflection see us...and if it does what does it see? food for thought
ReplyDeletelorely,the question then comes to mind are we the reflection of the image we are seeing, and if we are then is our existence real?Thinking about this concept makes one head ache.
ReplyDelete