On Perception

Perception is nine tenths of the flaw. I like that saying. It's a tricky thing. We can change our own perception and even the perception of others, but it is not easy. Sometimes we can live in one reality and then it shifts when we're around and/or under the influence of others. Sometimes we enter the perceptions of others. Sometimes we enter what we think are the perceptions of others.

I was thinking about this recently and a Monty Python skit came to mind. In the scene a man stands before a firing squad. Suddenly the scene gets foggy. When it clears he's lying on a hammock and his grandmother is pouring him a glass of lemonade. He says, "Thank G-d it was all a dream." She replies, "No, this is the dream. You're still in front of the firing squad." The screen quickly goes blurry and he is again about to be executed. I find that to be a powerful parable. What is reality? That seems like an easy question but it is oh so difficult. We are all biased in how we see ourselves, others, and our relationships with others (along with everything else in life, but I'm trying to remain quasi focused). We can feel one way about our life and then enter another context and see it totally differently? Which is the dream, the firing squad or the lemonade?