In my MLF102 classes this week, we are learning about reflexive verbs — verbs where the subject is doing something to itself. To get my students thinking about the name of this kind of verb, I ask them what they see when they look in the mirror. The answer, of course, is a reflection of themselves. In the picture on the right the cat sees itself, or in French, le chat se voit. But you've probably already noticed that the cat is seeing something else. I wonder how we see something different from what is actually in front of the mirror. I'm reminded of James 1:23 and 24 "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like."
I've seen a series of ads lately where the people looking in the mirror see a younger version of themselves. Here are a couple I found online:
That's the opposite of my experience. I remember the first time I looked in the mirror and saw my dad looking back at me! And now it's my grandpa ... or someone's grandpa anyway.... But I'm thankful for mirrors, even though I'm not always encouraged by what I see. Mirrors have saved me from many embarrassments.
Here's an amusing picture I saw as I was preparing this post.
That one is more like the cat in the mirror above, and probably more like what we see when we look in the mirror. We often fool ourselves into thinking we're what we're not. We see someone more color-coordinated, more stylish, or more whatever than is really the case. It's then that I'm thankful for the honesty of my wife, children, and close friends, even though what they say isn't always what I wanted to hear. When I've listened, I don't look as ridiculous to the world at large.
I have always liked To a Louse: On Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet at Church (1786) by the Scottish poet Robert Burns. At church he observes a louse crawling all over the hat of an otherwise well-groomed young lady. Here's the final stanza in the original, and then in English we're more accustomed to:
O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!
(And would some Power the small gift give us
To see ourselves as others see us!
It would from many a blunder free us,
And foolish notion:
What airs in dress and gait would leave us,
And even devotion!)
Others certainly do see us better than we see ourselves.
I'll end with a cartoon I saw on someone's Facebook and enjoyed:
This Saturday is our primary election here in South Carolina. As we've been assailed with literature and TV ads, it's almost humorous to see how each candidate's opponents have a different view of him from what he is portraying himself to be. It makes you wonder if they checked with those they could trust to tell them the truth before entering the race. Now it's a matter of choosing the candidate with the fewest number of warts that seem to be so visible others!
How about you? Do you cheerfully receive honest feedback from your loved ones? It's not always easy, is it? Getting to see ourselves as others see us, though, is a gift, if we'll accept it as such.
quotation...
"Sanctification is not an individual sport." — Eric Newton
=^..^= =^..^=
Rob
Oh no! My reality check bounced.
Print This Post
E-mail this post to a friend
Share this post on Facebook
If you enjoyed this post, get updates by RSS 
e-mail 
or Twitter 
on Jan 18th, 2012 at 8:56 am
Great lesson in today’s post. We easily forget that our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
on Jan 18th, 2012 at 8:58 am
The other day a lady with graying hair and a teenage son said to me something about “people our age.” I was chuckling to myself later and thinking how she must be mistaken about us being around the same age, when it hit me that I could easily have a teenage son, and my hair is definitely graying. Hmmm. I can’t be 40! I’m way too young!
on Jan 18th, 2012 at 1:02 pm
It has been neat to hear about MLF 102 from a distance. Back when I took it, I never imagined that it would become a family tradition!
on Jan 18th, 2012 at 5:58 pm
Really like the two top pictures. Because I am officially–as of January 15th–in the senior citizen bracket, I often think younger, feel younger, walk younger, exercise younger, and talk younger. Until the reality of a mirror looms large before me.
on Jan 19th, 2012 at 7:10 am
The woman I see in the mirror is not me – that’s my Gran!
on Jan 20th, 2012 at 10:23 am
I remember when I turned 40 my mother said, “You can’t be 40. I’m 40!” Now I have 2 son-in-laws who are in their early 40′s!!!! What happened?!?
on Jan 20th, 2012 at 6:17 pm
Every time I get to feeling old, I remind myself that everyone who graduated from bj with me is now the same age as I am. Since Rob graduated before I did, he is still the same number of years older than me as he was back then.
When a friend became a great grandparent, I asked him, “How does it feel to be a great grandfather?”
He said, “Being a great grandfather is fine. What I don’t like is being the father of a grandmother.”
As for Burns’ poem, I’m familiar with the original version. It loses something in the translation to current English.