There’s an old Jewish proverb that goes, “A worm in a jar of horseradish thinks he’s in paradise.” It might seem strange but it’s actually a comment on our perception of reality. From my forty-five years of life experience I have discovered that my greatest danger comes not from what I don’t know, but rather what I think I know, but don’t.
Despite the modern obsession with truth finding, the fact is, ‘perception is everything.’ What people want to see and believe is often more compelling than reality.
2500 years ago Plato performed an astonishing magic trick. David Copperfield might make elephants disappear, but Plato made the world evaporate. He did this by claiming that the real world in which we live is entirely independent of our perception of it. In doing so he fiddled with the idea that the real world consists of true, perfect forms that create the essence of what we think we know, but our access to it is clouded by lack of knowledge and experience. What we think we know, is nothing more than a shadow or illusion of the perfect world beyond.
What grabs me about Plato’s vision is not that he believed in perfect forms, but rather his comprehension of humanities obsession with image. Television and film were not part of Plato’s environment, yet from the fourth century BC he was able to articulate the greatest disease of the 21st century. We’re not interested in the truth, we’re quite happy with illusion.
My favourite movies of late have the been the Bourne films. I like Matt Damon in the role of Jason Bourne, however I don’t like seeing him interviewed. He’s just no the same. I have an image and personality conflict that don’t align. I don’t care about the real Matt Damon, I only want to know about Jason Bourne. For me, Matt Damon is chained to an illusory character.
In the same way people imprison themselves in debt to maintain an image. They have a perception about themselves that requires a certain image in order to create that same perception in others. The perception and image are illusory, but the debt is real.
I wonder if the great task of life is to discover the truth about ourselves and our world and to live within that truth? The biblical Apostle Paul declared a similar philosophy to Plato, but with different motivations, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
Facing the truth about ourselves and others might sound frightening, but it may also be liberating - you’re better than your illusion. Why? Because God made you. Our current perceptions of self and the world may be cloudy or even faulty, but if you take interest in your designer you will begin the process of seeing differently. Unlike the worm, we escape from the Horseradish to the clarity of God’s paradise.