Heroes Not Zombies

When I came across this window the light drew me towards it. The window itself is a pretty standard, rectangular shape. I like the squared paper effect, but I don’t like the iron bars on the outside. I know that in some countries bars on the windows of houses are very common place, but they tend to put me in mind of prisons. I just don’t like them.

So there were elements in this window which appealed to me, and those which I found somewhat off-putting. However, it was the quality of the light itself which really appealed to me and I decided to photograph the light. That’s why I stepped back from the window and took this photo.

Having taken the photo, from the first time I reviewed it on my computer, and every time since, I’ve been struck by the presence of the seats in the foreground.

Why are those seats there?

Not to sit and look out the window at the garden or whatever you can see “out there”. Because the window is opaque. You can’t really see through it all.

So why sit there?

To see the light.

To experience the light.

To enjoy the light.

It’s a funny thing but it’s this window, and a couple of other ones I’ve encountered, shift my focus away from what I can see “out there” through the window and replace that with a focus on the quality of light streaming through “into here”.

Does that sound like it isn’t much? Maybe it does, but, you know, I think when we look out of a window to see what’s “out there” then the window itself disappears. It’s a frame, and lens, and as such, it contains, and filters what we are seeing. And I think a lot of the time, we are not very aware of the frames and lenses which colour and alter our view of reality. But when we shift the focus to our experience of the light, then something different happens.

Is this the shift between grasping something, (the main way in which we “exploit” the world), and simply experiencing the present moment (the main way we “explore” the world)?

Is this the shift between a utilitarian approach, asking “but what is the window for?” to something more playful, something which has value in its own right, not just to act as a tool to achieving something else?

Huh, suddenly I’m reminded of an essay by C S Lewis about observing a shaft of light in his shed, then moving to be within the light itself, something which he used to think about the difference between observing and experiencing. I wrote about it once…..ah, yes, here it is, if you’d like to read it.

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This is one of the most unusual windows I’ve ever seen. I spotted it during a trip to Segovia, Spain a few years ago.
Have you ever looked through a window which has really old glass in it? The glass has structure and shape. It often has twists, curls or waves in it, so that whatever you are looking at through the window is completely changed by the window itself.

We are used to having factory produced smooth, “flawless” glass in our windows. It’s so unobtrusive that we don’t even really notice it at all. In fact, some places put red discs, or notices on the glass to stop people from trying to walk through it. But I like that older, hand-fashioned glass. Those patterns and shapes don’t seem like flaws to me, and I rather enjoy seeing the results of the creative fusion of whatever is on the other side of the glass, the glass itself, and my own act of observation. It reminds me just how actively creative perception is. Other wise I tend to think of it like a camera lens with the image of the “outside” cast precisely onto the screen after flipping upside down twice, once as it goes through the lens, then a second time, to “correct” it, as it passes through a prism. See, even that apparently more direct way of seeing, isn’t as direct as we first think, is it?

As well as reminding me of the active creative processes involved in perception, because it makes me more aware of myself as the viewing “subject”, I’m also reminded of how every one of us experiences the universe from our own unique perspective.

This particular window magnifies that idea for me. You could imagine that each of these circles is a unique lens through which a different person sees and experiences the world. Each one a bit different from the others. But, actually, all of the circles are connected……you see those connecting lines in the glass?

Because that’s a bit like how it is for us, isn’t it?

I view the world from this place of a “self”, whatever that is, this particular place which I cannot share with any other living being. No two of have identical experiences of what we perceive. We bring our unique memories, values, beliefs and imaginings to bear on it all. But that doesn’t mean we are completely separate looking at totally different worlds. We share a lot….we share a lot of atoms and molecules, we share time and space, we share stories, beliefs and traditions…..whatever we see and experience is not entirely disconnected from what others see, experience and feel, after all.

It’s a tricky one, that. It’s a constant dynamic balance, an integration of what’s different and what’s shared. Pretty amazing, huh?

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