Hello Stranger

by Katherine Center

“Basically we tend to decide on what the world is and who people are and how things are—and then we look for evidence that supports what we’ve already decided. And we ignore everything that doesn’t fit.”

“How is it possible,” I said, gazing at the sight of him in wonder, “that you were everywhere? All along?” Joe shrugged. “You can’t see when you’re not looking, I guess.”

IT’S SO STRANGE to me now, looking back on that upside-down time in my life, how many good things came out of it. If you’d asked me at the time, I’d have told you everything was ruined forever. But of course the fact it was all so hard is part of what made things better.

We see what we’re looking for.

We’re all so limited and disappointing and so, so wrong. Much of the time. Maybe even most of the time. We’re all so steeped in our own confirmation bias. We’re all so busy seeing what we expect to see.

The more good things you look for, the more you find.