Seeing the Field

I was watching the Cowboys-Lions game on TV the other night, when one of the commentators, Troy Aikman—himself a Hall of Fame Cowboys quarterback from the 90s—made an observation in praise of the current Dallas QB, Dak Prescott. “He’s seeing the field really well right now,” Troy said.

Meanwhile, over the holidays, I was visiting my family. Watching my two-year-old nephew Logan (actually my great-nephew) bounce around from Christmas gifts to playing with his cousins to trying to negotiate a steep flight of stairs, I realized his whole world is about seeing the field.

Life is the field for him.

At one point, he was struggling to get the wrapping paper off a gift. His grandmother reached in. “Do you want some help, Logan?” Logan immediately and forcefully pushed her hand away. He was not only impelled to make sense of the field … it was fun for him. You couldn’t have stopped him if you tried.

You and I as artists and entrepreneurs live to see the field. It’s our job. Our calling. But what field(s)? The field of the material world, of course. But then fields beyond that. The field of the future, of potentiality, of time forward and back …

We struggle to see the inner fields as well. The field of our calling, of our dreams, of our imagination. What is our art? How do we reach the level beyond this one … and levels beyond that? What is being? What is honor? What is death? What is the soul? 

We live in the field of our imagination. But what is that? How many limiting beliefs are we carrying that are preventing us from seeing what’s right in front of us? How would our lives be different if we could see those fields? If we could operate within them? 

I thought, watching Logan under the Christmas tree, that of all the fields that I should or could be seeing, I’m probably not even aware of .0001 of them.

I’m like my little nephew, struggling with my baby fingers just to get the wrapping off the package. 

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