Backlit by the sun, a person turns into an outline. Ask questions before deciding somebody’s just a silhouette.
CREATIVITY
WHAT THIS MEANS
Standing between someone and a bright light is enough to erase their face. All you can see is a shape, and shapes are easy to fill in with whatever you already assumed about people who look like that. It does not take malice, just a bad angle and a bit of hurry. The person stays complicated while your picture of them gets simpler.
When you catch yourself summing somebody up in one word this week, treat that as a signal to move. Ask them something, or ask somebody who knows them well, before you file the verdict away.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
Who have you reduced to an outline without asking anything?
MORE IN PARADOX, METAPHOR & FOOD FOR THOUGHT
- Every coin is stamped under massive pressure. That’s how the design gets in. Hard seasons shape you too.
- Scrolling to relax is like eating chips to get full. You end up with more and feel worse.
- We stopped looking at wall clocks and started checking phones for the time. Now we check the time and lose an hour.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.