Perceptions: what we see may not be what it seems

Very often what we think we see and understand may not be the case.

It depends on which perspective one is viewing.  All too often we tend to judge from our own perspective without stopping to think further.

Let me illustrate.  A mother is very ill, yet her son refuses to come and see her. To most people, the son would be regarded as an ingrate, a useless son who doesn’t care about his mother.

Apart from what people construe as apathy, a lack of filial piety, or simply a monstrous off spring, could the son have his own reasons for not wanting to visit his mother?

Could it be fear? Fear that his mother is dying and he dares not see her in that condition, frail and so different from the mother he used to know? Sometimes disease  takes a terrible toll on a person’s appearance.  It can be a shock to the system to see a person who used to be so vibrant, reduced to a shadow of her former self.  Perhaps he prefers to remember her as she once was, a healthy and vibrant  mother.

Could it be a denial of the fact that his mother is dying?  If he doesn’t see her, then there will not be confirmation that she is dying.

So it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t love his mother.  He is wrestling with his own demons.  Thus can we judge him and mark him as a useless, ungrateful son?

Tweet