Seeing Past the Mirror

This articlelooks at developing the ability and habit of seeing beyond the physical appearance of life. It requires courage to let go of our staged personal story, props and all. But even glimpses of a deeper reality can be uplifting and life-changing.

When anything is covered up it becomes mysterious. It piques our curiosity. What's inside the black velvet box? What's beyond the locked door? Who lives in the room with the curtains constantly drawn?

To satisfy our need to know, we look beyond. Aha! The black velvet box holds an exquisite diamond ring. We turn the key to find a house full of kids and laughter. We see a hunched-over, decrepit old man; carrying a sack of groceries, enter the sunless room.

We see with our eyes but does that satisfy our curiosity? For some people yes, but others must know more. Is the ring new or does each facet reveal a piece of its history? What is causing the laughter? Who is this man and why is he alone?

The seekers of life want to know the whole story, the story beyond the appearance, the blueprint of life itself.

Religion strives to look beyond the appearance and calls forth a fortified faith to believe in the unseen. Science delves into the mysteries of the universe researching and proposing new and often conflicting theories. Psychology studies the characteristics of mind and behavior.

However, if you were to indefatigably study religion, science and psychology, filling your head with volumes of information, theories, doctrines and dogma, would you then be satisfied? Or would you be filled with contradiction, confusion and more questions? Too much information can be overwhelming as well as frightening.

The news media provides mass information loaded with fear. Fear in turn fuels the economy. It sells cable TV, newspapers, diseases and drugs. It can pull you under and hold you down. It can run your life.

When you peer into your looking glass what do you see? A face, a body, a physical being that someday will no longer be here. It is part of the material world. How does that make you feel? Do you fear death?

We live in a culture where we are bombarded with fear and fall suspect to allowing it to darken our days. It can mesmerize us so completely that we loose sight of a deeper reality, which we all have access to.

In The Diary of Anne Frank, the story of a 13-year-old Jewish girl and her family who were forced into hiding by the Nazis during World War II, Anne writes, "in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart." This was despite the fact that her government was torturing and killing millions of Jews and countless others because of their beliefs.

A vulnerable child, if just for a brief moment, was able to see through her personal story and express a courageous and higher ideal. She tapped into the deeper reality espoused by many spiritual leaders. Like them, she saw beyond the looking glass.

I once had the privilege of interviewing a husband and wife, Henry and Dina, who were both Holocaust survivors of World War II. After I wrote a first draft I asked them to read it because of the sensitive subject matter. I have never forgotten Henry's response, "It's correct but you did not capture the beauty."

I was numb. What did he mean?

In 1943 Dina's brother was 11 when taken by the Nazis. Later she learned that before he was killed, blood was drained out of his young body and given to the Nazi soldiers on the frontlines. At age 17 she was taken with 120 terrified girls to the concentration camp of Majdanek. When they arrived only 60 girls were still alive, the other half had slit their wrists. She was forced to help build the crematorium. She survived five camps and a death march.

Henry and his family awakened to the horrors of the war upon learning that 3,000 Jews had been herded into a local synagogue by the Gestapo and burned alive. He survived four concentration camps, being shot and wounded during an attempted escape and a death march. He was liberated on May 8, 1945 at age 22 and weighed 70 pounds.

Yet I was told that my article "did not capture the beauty."

In order to find it I had to see through the looking glass. My finished piece earned Henry's smile of approval. How did I do it?

I reread my notes carefully and began extracting the good. And that is exactly what you have to do in order to make sense of life. You must go beyond the appearance, which mesmerizes, sometimes terrifies, and search for the good. It's always there but not always visible. Your feeling side, your heart and your humanity will lead you to it.

Is it easy? No, because for the most part, society sees only the surface appearance. But if a 13-year-old girl can do it, so can you. Perhaps it helped because Anne Frank was hiding in an attic with a limited physical view of the world except an occasional glimpse of the sky. However, Henry and Dina endured beatings, starvation, typhus, humiliation and extreme cruelties, and yet, they saw through the looking glass.

In order to see past the mirror you do not need to become a spiritual leader. You simply need to give yourself permission to see life differently. To look beyond the appearance in order "to capture the beauty."

© Copyright 2008 Susan Ann Darley

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