Ink Blot

Carl Jung is not the first per­son to say that the entire world is pro­jec­tion. Jesus said it in a sim­i­lar way: “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” The state­ment is psy­cho­log­i­cal com­mon sense. We see what we think we see. We see what we want to see. We see what we are told to see.

See­ing is not neu­tral; it involves the heart — all of our expe­ri­ences and expec­ta­tions. We bring to this art a soul that is a work of art of its own (hope­fully any­way). “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

I have a con­fes­sion to make: I have made a habit of toss­ing ver­bal ink blots out to peo­ple to see what makes them tick (and have done so most of my life). I play dumb. I want to see what I can expect from peo­ple. It is a com­bi­na­tion of need­ing some pre­dictabil­ity in life and a pro­fes­sional haz­ard of being a counselor/minister. I do not toss the ver­bal depic­tions around lightly or in a tempt­ing way, but I def­i­nitely lis­ten to the responses very closely.

Hearts are revealed (mine included) in such sub­tle ways. Again, from Jesus: “By your words you shall be jus­ti­fied and by your words you shall be con­demned.” There is no such thing as a neu­tral word. I do not speak to “bait” peo­ple. Usu­ally, I can learn what I need to know about oth­ers with­out hav­ing to toss out an ink blot of sounds. I also know that oth­ers have the right to read me as well in any­thing I say or do.

Ink blots are mir­rors. They help us see what resides inside our souls. Words, events, and actions are all fair game. It is impor­tant not to be judg­men­tal (as we judge oth­ers we too shall be judged). It is also impor­tant to real­ize how dim our mir­rors may be.

This arti­cle is a writ­ten ink blot.