Life Lenses

TO THE EDITOR:

I’ve worn glasses since I was nine years old. Before that ninth year, the world was a pretty distorted and blurry place. However, I just thought that was the way the world looked. So, I struggled in school, at sports, and in my general life activities.

But after I got those first corrective lenses, everything changed. I now saw the world much more clearly — including the chalk board at school, the baseballs I was trying to hit and catch, and the far horizons of my surroundings. Indeed, everything changed for the better. And, those changes dramatically changed me and the quality of my life.

That new clarity gave life a completely different feel. Things which had seemed very threatening and frustrating to me (like trying to catch and hit a fast moving baseball) suddenly became completely nonthreatening and very doable.

Since those younger days, I have discovered — on a whole new level — that life’s quality is really all about the “corrective lenses” we employ to view life. Life is always just life — it is what it is. And, like it or not, its issues and circumstances are very often distorted and hard to make out. And, so we instinctively employ psychological lenses of various kinds to improve the view.

For example, there are many out there who have a self-serving interest in dividing this nation, racially, economically, politically etc. So they tout the lens of hatefulness — as though life viewed through that lens, for any reason, will improve its quality — yeah, right. All that lens ever really does is shade life blood red.

But there is a corrective lens which adjusts life’s difficulties in a hugely more desirable and appropriate way. For instance, when I was young, I made many serious mistakes in relating to my wife and four children. But now, none of them seem to remember those mistakes. The reason is the lens they’ve chosen through which to view life — and me.

Jesus asked this telling question. “Will you just love those who love you?” Love is the lens which brings the wondrous clarity of thoughtfulness and tolerance.

Larry Burnett Texarkana, Arkansas