Do You Believe?

Believe
To think that something is true, correct or real

Do you believe? Or maybe a better question is what do you believe? Whether you believe me or not I think everyone has a belief system. Your belief system is a set of things you assume to be true. Proof or evidence is not really at issue here because none of us are completely rational. We all like to think we are rational (I do!) but it is extremely difficult to really be dispassionate and totally objective.

The problem is we filter what we see and experience through our minds and come to conclusions. The filters are extremely powerful and mostly hidden. For example, every one of us has a blind spot in the center of our vision. But we don’t see the black spot because our brains fill in the blank space with a kind of content aware algorithm. Here is a simple experiment you can do to “see” your blind spot.

We also filter what we see by focusing our attention. Here is a short video that dramatically shows just how blind we can be.

So what does this have to do with the Ambrotype at the top of this post? Simple! If you believe in Santa then does he exist? Or does a lack of belief shatter our childhood memories? You can choose what to believe so do you choose to believe in a world of happiness and loving gift givers? Or do you want to believe that that world is only a childish fantasy? I choose to believe that there is love in this world; despite the pain and suffering a better world awaits us!

“Believe” is a 5x7in Ambrotype (wet plate photo on glass). He had a unfortunate accident and crashed on the floor. I was going to throw him away but thought maybe I can put the pieces back together. So I laid out the pieces and then used an adhesive vinyl sheet to hold them together. A couple coats of shellac varnish were added and then framing. Varnishing was a mess because shellac ran out of the cracks on onto my hands. But maybe restoring belief is messy no matter what you do!