Lori Duff Writes

For a while, when I was a teenager, I was obsessed with the idea of color. I got it into my head that there was no way to know if we all perceived color the same way, that maybe the way I saw green was the way you saw orange, and that would explain why I thought one color was pretty and you thought it was hideous.

Yes, I was sober when I had these thoughts.

Anyway, the point is that somewhere around sixteen I had some serious philosophical thoughts about perception and how everyone’s was probably different, and how we could never see anyone else’s reality. This is probably why I didn’t have a boyfriend.

Let’s flash forward about forty years. I still haven’t resolved the color issue, though I don’t think about it all that often anymore. Mainly because I don’t care if you see red the same way I do. But I do find myself having similar thoughts about reality. Without getting into how I see reality, I can see from the social media posts of some of my friends that their perceptions of reality are completely different from mine. They simply can’t be looking at the same set of facts as me. I want to shake them and ask, “Are you seeing the same thing I’m seeing?”

One person sees law enforcement officers being beaten; another sees a peaceful protest.

One person sees a refugee fleeing violence; another sees a criminal being expelled from a mental hospital.

One person sees someone living their life with the one they love; another sees a sexual predator.

One person sees an immature bully; another person sees a statesman.

These things are not a matter of perspective or taste. They’re different perceptions of reality. We’re looking at the same thing and seeing something completely different. It’s like I’m pointing at a cat and saying “Cat” and you’re looking at the same animal and saying, with equal conviction, “Platypus.” Neither one of us is going to convince the other. We each think the other one is crazy.

I don’t know what it is. A glitch in the simulation? Perhaps we’re receiving different feeds from whoever is controlling it. Maybe we’re being fed different flavors of Kool-Aid?  I just know it makes me sad because people I know and love are pushing a reality that is completely out of whack with my values and claiming it’s something else altogether.

One of us is wrong. Very wrong. And I don’t know who. I don’t think it’s me, but reality is so disturbing I can’t help but worry.

I wish someone would offer me a blue pill already. 

Buy my book, Devil’s Defense and/or find me on Substack.

Lori Duff

Lori B. Duff is an award-winning author who practices law on the side.  Her latest book, “If You Did What I Asked in the First Place” was awarded the Gold Medal for humor in the Foreword INDIES awards in 2019. You can follow her on Twitter at @LoriBDuff and on Facebook. For more blogs written by Lori, click here. For more information about Lori in general, click here. If you want Lori to do your writing for you, click here. If you want Lori to help you market your book, click here.