Your Amazing…

September 15, 2020Blog, Encouragement, Inspiration, Personal Growtheyes, see clearly, vision, Your amazingdebio7 Leave a comment

Eyes

Helen Keller, who lost her eyesight and hearing to scarlet fever, as a toddler of nineteen months is quoted as saying,

“Of all the senses, sight must be the most delightful.”
Helen Keller

Would you agree? Disagree?

Helen Keller, with the patience and expertise of Anne Sullivan not only overcame her blindness, deafness and muteness but developed her sense of touch so sensitively that she “listened to music” via the vibrations in the air and things around her.

She also developed her sense of taste and smell so acutely that she was able to gather more info through her limited senses than we probably do with our five senses. And yet, she had no eyesight.

Helen eventually went on to become the first deaf-blind person to earn a college degree. She is amazing!

“I can see, and that is why I can be happy, in what you call the dark, but which is to me is golden. I can see a God-made world, not a man-made world.” “It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.”

We see, but do we have vision?

Our eyes are amazing. They provide vision of the world around us, and also reveal if we’re happy, tired, down, or confused and they even serve as “windows to the soul”.

Allow me to take you through a quick review of how exactly our amazing eye works. (Thanks to my own refresher course at livescience.com.) Then I’ll tie it all together with some interesting applications for you. Hang in there.

We humans have a “camera-type” eye. Just like a camera lens focuses light onto film, our cornea focuses light onto our retina, that big screen at the back of our eyeball. The cornea is transparent and is at the front of your eye to help focus the incoming light.

The iris, you’ll remember is that part that gives you your eye color. It is ring-shaped and it has an adjustable opening called the pupil. The pupil controls just exactly how much light enters the eye. It has to adjust to let the light in.

The colorless, transparent lens is located behind the pupil and focuses the light onto the screen of your retina. (Aren’t you glad we don’t have to remember all this before we see anything? It just happens, we have sight, we have an amazing eye.)

Inside that eyeball chamber are two different kinds of jelly, liquid type substances. The aqueous humor and the vitreous humor. (Can you guess the application of these two? 🙂 ha ha)

Of course, there are muscles involved inside the eye, too. The ciliary muscles for example, hold the lens and must both relax (pull and flatten the lens) and contract (thicken the lens) for far away and up close sight.

Review is almost done.

On the retina are millions of light sensitive cells called rods and cones, which differentiate between us seeing colors or black and white. When the light hits them it is converted to an electrical signal that travels to the brain via the optic nerve.

The brain then accepts that electric signal and changes it into images for us to see. Phew!!!! Review done.

Seriously, I could say nothing else and I think we’d be challenged and reminded just how amazing our eyes are, right? How perfectly designed. How intricate. How complex, having liquids and electric signals in the same spot without loss of power. How significant each part is and vital for sight to be effective. If a part of the eye anatomy is defective, sight is hindered, disabled or lost. For perfect clarity and vision, all parts of the eye must be fully functional.

The same can be said for the clarity of our other vision. By that I mean our “world view”, how we see the world around us. Not just anatomical seeing. The “eyes” through which we see what is happening around us.

Check out these practical tips for clear eyesight in these days, that I have drawn from our look at the amazing eye:

Cornea – we need to focus on the light. Let the light in, focus on it not the darkness
Lens – we must fight to stay transparent, stop trying to hide or cover up what we are feeling
Pupil – we can and must control what we allow into our lives. We give things an opening and we decide how much to let in. Put controls in place in your life.
Aqueous and vitreous humor – LAUGH! Find joy. Seek humor, make people laugh, laugh yourself. It is a medicine that we need a double dose of in these days.
Ciliary muscles – to see things in the distance we must relax. Pull back, flatten out. Learn to relax and not jump too far ahead. To see things up close we need to have a bit more thick skin. Thicken our lens, be tough and we will see more clearly.
Retina – seeing color is determined by millions of very, very sensitive cells; and those cells are responsible for sharp, clear vision. Our vision of color will sharpen as we are sensitive to those around us.
Signal conversions – remember that everything we see has been converted to appear as an image we see. The brain makes translations for us and helps us make sense of what we are seeing.

We have an amazing eye who’s function is to help us see clearly. Today, at the very least I trust that your appreciation for your vision has been boosted.

Yet, beyond that, I hope that you are able to take away a more tangible lesson from the eye to apply and use to help you see more clearly in these days.

“It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.”

You’re amazing and so are your eyes.

Cheers to you.

What Do You See?

September 8, 2020Blog, Inspirationdiscern, hidden messages, see clearly, visiondebio7 Leave a comment

It was my son, the artist who first taught me about “negative space” in art work. I was interested then and I am interested now.

“Negative space” is the space around and between the subjects of an image. It is considered most effective and evident when the space around the subject, not the subject itself, forms an interesting shape.

Here’s a classic example to help you visualize it:

In the 1980’s, I was working for a very young company based in Memphis, who’s goal was to ship packages overnight everywhere in the world. They wanted to beat out UPS and USPS. The CEO’s name was Fred Smith and we affectionately called him Uncle Freddy.

In 2000 they changed their logo to this, one that I believe nearly everyone has seen:

They changed it to utilize the negative space between the E and the x. What do you see?

There between the E and the x is a white arrow, pointing to the right, and is meant to represent the idea of moving forward with speed and precision, much like the FedEx brand.

Brilliant use of negative space, right? Had you noticed it before?

Below I am going to insert several logos, most of which are familiar. Study them, and not just the negative space, what do you see?

In each of these there is more to see than meets the eye, there is more to the message.

Wendy’s – look at her collar. It spells MOM. Home and family, are Wendy’s priorities.
Baskin Robbins – pink lettering reveals the number 31 – because they have 31 flavors. (that’s what I still call them to this day)
LG – the round, red circle is designed to be a face with the L and the nose and the G encircling it the outline of the face. Bringing humanity to machines.
Tostitos – delish chips for sure. Did you notice the “i” is a small table, it has salsa on it; the dot of the “i” is a chip, and surrounding the table (i) the 2, t’s are designed to look like people. The messaging, Tostitos are for sharing.
WHAT DO YOU SEE?
Formula 1 racing – easy to see the negative space 1 speeding away
Hershey’s kisses – hidden in the logo is another kiss. Can you find it? It is between the K and the I… see it? Message – another kiss is hidden in there
Goodwill – I always saw the smiley face in the left corner, but I never realized it was meant to also be another g… 2 g’s making the goodwill point.

These types of brain teasers I have always enjoyed. I’m hoping that you are too.

But there is another message too, and I’ll share it after this next and last set of logos. Look at them, what do you see?

Apple – we all know this one. True story, it is designed to represent when Eve took the bite from the “apple” and received knowledge (of good and evil.)
MLB baseball team the Milwaukee Brewers. A baseball glove with MB
Toyota’s logo of interlocking ovals shapes every alphabet letter of the company’s name
Pinterest- we have all seen this one, right? The P is a pin.
Toblerone – featuring the Matterhorn Mountain of Switzerland, has a hidden bear in the mountain symbolizing it is made in the “city of bears”
Sun Mircosystems – sun spelled out in the microchip, facing every direction
Hope for African Children Initiative – HACI – not only does it appear to be the continent of Africa but the outline is actually created by contours of two people – an adult and a child

So, what do you see?

What did you see before some of the messages were revealed? Did you see the entire, intended message?

Today, I am challenged by the fact that not everything we see is clearly understood. I am challenged to search for the underlying messaging, the hidden messages, if you will.

I am confident, there is more to it than meets the eye and the discerning will see beyond the curtain and realize just who is pulling the strings and levers in this land of oohs and aahs.

What do you see?

Cheers to you.