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The information is there, but perhaps it is at a different level

Recently, at sunset, a long-winged bird flew over my garden heading west, creating an attractive image of outstretched wings against a blue sky with a hint of orange. I always have a camera on hand, so I immediately took a picture.

But there was a problem: although I was sure I had captured the bird's flyby, it was not visible in the image. I thought I had already lost a good opportunity to have a nice photograph, but then I thought something else: the image was there, but I didn't see it.

I transferred the photograph to my computer and using the appropriate program I began to enlarge the image and go through each sector. In no time, I found the bird. The camera had captured its spread wings in undeniable contrast to the sky, but not to the size I had anticipated. I cropped the image appropriately and the photo was ready for sharing.

Something similar happens when we look for information: it is there, but we do not see it because it is not at the same level that we look for it, or that we anticipate, or believe it will be. But that does not mean that it is not there, only that we look for it where it is not.

The situation is exemplified in that old story of a man who, in the middle of the night, is under a lamppost looking at the ground from here to there. Another man comes in and asks “What's wrong?”. "I lost my keys," says the first. Together they search for the keys for some time, but without finding them.

Then, the one who arrived later asks: "Where did you lose the keys? And the other responds: "In the other corner, but I look for them here because light is better here."

Honestly, we do the same: we look for what we lost or what we have not yet found not where we lost it, but where we think it will be easy to find it. And in that futile search, we often involve others.

We do not realize that the information (or the ideas, or the solution) is already there, but not necessarily in an obvious way or at the level that we are looking for it. Sometimes we have to "enlarge the image" to find what we want. Or, in other words, we have to expand our consciousness.

Unfortunately, we live in a time of closed consciousness, of reduced (and even minimal) psychological capacity, and of hedonistic and short-term priorities.

If I do not find what I want when I want (that is, immediately), where I want and how I want it, and if that does not give me pleasure, then "that" (whatever it is) either does not exist or does not serve me, and I look then who to blame.

That “mental skating” (as Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset used to say) has little to do with life, with thinking, and with the future.

Thanks for listening. For more commentaries and other stories, please, visit us at Project Vision 21 dot com.

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