What do you see?
I took these photos from a suspension bridge several hundred feet up in the air—what do you see when you look at them?
Last week, I had a chance to co-lead a high school camping trip in Indonesia. One of our guides on the trip was an ecologist named Diego, a burly guy built like a fridge with a sleeve of colorful tattoos, an Indiana Jones hat, and a giant machete that was great for both bushwhacking and cutting apples. On the first night, he gave us a brief overview on the history of forests.
We were riveted.
No, but seriously—he was so into the topic and engaging, we had kids who ended up taking several pages of notes (and it wasn’t even required).
One of the concepts he told us about is something called “the green blur.”
It’s the idea that when most people see a forest like the ones pictured above all they tend to see is a green blur. Maybe you see different shades of green but still, it’s just a lot of green.
When Diego sees this same thing, he said he sees entire cultures and subcultures of life—trees and plants whose lives are interwoven in unique ways and who are distinctive in the way they contribute to a ridiculous number of layers of life.
That’s way more than I saw when I first looked out at the forest.
The question that I’ve been thinking about since then is:
What do you see?
To be honest, many times, I feel like I see many different types of blurs—not just the green ones. People blurs. Building blurs. Car blurs. Screen blurs.
Diego gave us a piece of advice about overcoming the “green blur.”
Focus on one thing. Choose one plant and then look for that plant everywhere. Does it show up in the same types of places, is it near similar plants in each spot, what are its attributes, how does it seem to interact with the other members of the forest?
Once you choose your one plant you can add one more, and then another. With a handful of plants under your belt, you will see the forest in a completely different way.
How many times does a version of the “green blur” actually catch you in your day to day life? I work in a school and it would be easy to look out at the cafeteria and see a blur of students.
But look closely and, much like their forest counterparts, you will see students whose lives are interwoven in unique ways and who are distinctive in the way they contribute to a ridiculous number of layers of life.
When you are looking, I mean like really looking, you start to see things…
this group of students always sits in this same spot
this one student always buys this specific lunch
this student always shares her snack with a certain friend
this group is always studying while eating
Then once you see the details of life, you can begin to unpack why the layers of life work the way they do, and like a forest, how you can help certain ecosystem participants contribute to the overall group in meaningful ways.
This all might sound a little weird but give it a try. Look around for the “blurs” in your life and choose just one thing. Then build you mental map around that one item as you look for how that one thing sits in the context of the whole.
Let me know what you think as you look for the blurs in your life this week.
Keep Asking,
Kyle
P.S. I’m gonna experiment with posting one question each day that’s on my mind. I’ll keep it to less than 60 seconds but it will give you a peek inside what’s going on and how I use questions each day to help me navigate the big and small pieces of life.