An Experiment in Looking Carefully

This photograph of a flower was taken in a local rose garden. Like many such photos, it’s been enhanced to show aspects of the flower that, although they were subtle, still jumped out at me enough to want to share them. The very subtle colors of an ostensibly white flower, the overall form and symmetry, the water droplets speaking of a cool, damp, fall morning. All these things were there in the original view, but not as clear.

Click or tap on the picture, and you will see a version of the picture with no distractions around it. Then click or tap again and it will become an interactive picture that lets you look around and see the whole location where the picture was taken.

Swipe to pan around, and pinch to zoom in and out. Find the flower and tap it again to return to the original picture.

This comparison between the original scene and the enhanced picture illustrates several principles. The processed picture illustrates the value of looking closer, taking the time to see what’s there rather than being satisfied with casual observation. The interactive picture illustrates the value of looking around, being aware of context rather than focusing on only one view.

For example, the beauty of the enhanced photograph existed in the original scene, but largely in the mind’s eye, making it easy to miss without looking closely. This is true of much of the world’s beauty. All around us are scenes of beauty and meaning that we disregard as we focus on the obvious.

Perhaps we even become lazy, seeking beauty only where it is obvious, where the spectacular shouts to us. This is an intellectual laziness, a reluctance to put forth the mental effort to see better, even as we often expend physical effort to find more obvious wonders. The mental effort is hard because it takes practice to learn to see beauty and meaning in the world.

This can be true of ideas, too, with ones that take learning and careful reflection. For example, it’s easy to become so focused on the physical that we ignore the full context of existence and dismiss metaphysical things like the mind, ignoring the subtleties of conscious experience itself. Like the subtle beauty in a flower, we may not want to spend the effort to recognize these things, to learn and think carefully about them.

In both photography and consciousness, the effort is worth it. We gain important new perspectives that help us live and love better. To me, it is the need to love that makes this effort worthwhile. Love is the essence of selflessness, and we need more of that in a world that teaches us to become increasingly more self-focused.

This is another example of metaphysics – in particular, the Christian view of life. Although it may not always seem like it in today’s public discussions, the fundamental Christian value of learning to love our neighbors is something that’s needed today. This stems from the things that Jesus taught, but like the effort needed to see subtle beauty and recognize the glimmers of conscious experience, it takes work to look beyond the religious trappings that have come to define the faith for many people.