From Hero to Human in A Glance

My perception of everything in this world is based on the two glances that I give it; the first glance sees only perfection, God’s image, & the second glance sees nothing but the imperfections, the ridges and the cracks. Some imperfections enhance the beauty of the view, making it more human and more real whereas some imperfections provide a look into all that is wrong with the view, again rendering it human and real. Whatever I make of the things I look at, the people I meet, the experiences I go through, these two glances shape my perception.

Today I saw a man. At first glance all I saw was his fairer than snow complexion and his eyes the color of emerald’s glinting in the sunlight. But when I looked at him again, I saw the scar, barely hidden, on the underside of his chin, I saw the ridges on his cheek, the hollowness that the bags under his eyes gave to his whole face. The Greek God that I had seen at first glance had suddenly lost all immortality and turned human in front of me.

My perception of everything in this world is based on two glances that I give it, the first glance is through the eye of the child that I have kept alive inside me even after all these years, a child who believes in magic, & the second glance is that of the adult who is slowly trying to beat out the child, the adult who sees magic as an excuse for a laziness to find true answers. The child in me sees the hero and the adult only sees the human. And if growing up means seeing your heroes turn human in front of you, I’m afraid all it takes for me to grow up is the second glance.

And I think the person who came up with the adage, “Love at first sight” also suffered from a similar sort of growing up. Because the adage implies that it is the perfection that we see at first glance that captures our heart, all glances after that bear witness to the imperfections; the attitude, the crazy habits, the weird family, the overall persona. And if “love at first sight” endures, it is a testament to our commitment to our “love at first sight” that even after all those imperfections, even after seeing the Greek God/Goddess forsake all immortality and turn human in front of us, we did not turn away, lest for another angle to look at them with.

Yes, we all sum up the world in our first two glances at it; all other judgments are merely to satisfy the ruse that is civilized society.

Photo Credits: alayna.deviantart.com