Self-reflection
A defining differentiation between us and all other living things on this planet is our extraordinary ability for self-reflection. This trait allows us to look at ourselves and evaluate our emotional, physical, and metaphysical states. In its less obvious form, self-reflection strengthens our conscience by helping us identify and enforce our own moral awareness. In its more obvious form, it strengthens our ego by helping us define who we are and what we desire. Self-reflection, however, is not infallible. In his drawing, Hand With Reflecting Sphere, M.C. Escher, the great Dutch sketch artist, shows how reality and self-reflection merge as they intermingle creating a new version of reality itself. Escher’s hand is holding a sphere containing a distorted reflection of himself, and in this instance the interplay between Escher and his reflection in the sphere gives the viewer a slight misinterpretation of Escher’s appearance. Our process is very similar to this. We incorporate events into our lives that co-mingle facts with our particular self-reflective interpretation of those facts. The result is a mixture of reality and interpretation that imbues “our” reality with a slight bias, or distortion. With each of us having a separate and distinct reality, even of the same events, it makes for endless conversations, arguments, and debates about what is “real.”