i've been seeing things...

it turns out you don't need a built-in network cable/jack like the creatures in avatar to "see" things the way they would. my roommate and i were floored by the inclusion of the concept in the movie, given that we had already stumbled onto the idea and were attempting to develop the ability in some crude manner.

"seeing things" was only one of many aspects of the ideology in the film that floored us; it's discouraging to me that so many people thought the movie too obvious or unoriginal, given the uniqueness of some of the deeper implications of the world of the na'vi. then again, i suspect even james cameron himself didn't really know the full extent of what he had stumbled onto. perhaps i'm still missing something obvious myself, but even if so, i like to think that art, especially really good art, often holds much more truth than even that of which its creator is aware. i've even found this to be true of my own stuff from years ago.

for my roommate--let's call him "jeff"--and i, these run-ins with seeing things have only increased in frequency since. it's not terribly interesting by relative standards, but i'm actually seeing my keyboard right now as i type this; jeff has a whole new connection with his car (standard transmission). sometimes we see these things incidentally, sometimes we go looking for them. turns out seeing is not even such a hard thing to do, with just about any perceivable thing at all, once you know where to look. of course, it seems that first step of knowing "where to look" may be a difficult thing to learn. indeed, i suppose that's why i'm writing this. after all, i basically found it by accident, and even that came after i had unknowingly honed myself into someone capable of such a thing for at least many years. i'm expecting that for most people, it takes, at least, a lot of learning and a little luck (maybe even a quantum of faith?) to focus one's mind's eye on something quite so ironically elusive.

so here i am, trying to become a teacher of a thing i've only just learned myself. perhaps it's foolish to expect that a few months' head start is adequate, but the good news is that in some sense i am, as they say, only the messenger. this thing all but leads itself, and so it will reveal itself, to me and to others, in due time.