Gestalt and Guernseys

I sometimes rush and, when I do, I sometimes screw up. Usually, this is because I "Gestalt". Gestalt is not actually a verb (but I used it as one...but I digress) but, rather, a school of psychology. In popular parlance, it refers to the human eye completing a picture that in reality is not complete. The brain fills in what it knows from past experiences and assumes that what it is seeing (but not totally seeing) is there again. So, when I "Gestalt" I assume facts not in evidence.

I thought that was the point where we launched, it had so many of the same features. Fact is, I want it to be the point, and my eyes take in what is similar to the original place while my brain fills in details that aren't there. But, it isn't the same point, and I am lost.

I see people do a similar thing with their beliefs such as assuming you or I are like them. I don't know when this Gestalt spills over into prejudice, but I have to wonder. Do you and I want to see one another as being very much alike? If you are just like me, I can trust you. If you are just like me, I am comfortable with you and can anticipate how you will react to things. If you are like me, then you think like me and that, of course, is the right way to think. If you are like me, you believe in what I do and not something that I don't like or understand.

But when I am the one who is not like everyone else I may feel neither comfortable nor safe. I cannot know how you will react to me, my thoughts and my actions. At such a time I am in danger of trying too hard to fit in. At such times I am in danger of hiding some of my uniqueness and, when I do, I lose part of myself. At such times it is hard to be the one black cow.

Paddle safe...

DS