LOVE, Kloudiia

“No, no, nooooo!” I screamed frantically inside my head.

And then he pressed. One more.

“Sheesh. Argh!” I thought.

I was in a mad rush for time on that particular day. Dashing into the lift, I swiftly pressed 25, the floor that I was destined to arrive. Two guys sauntered in, and yes, much to my dread, pressed 2 different levels.

That translated to 2 more minutes of credit to the duration I was late.

But to me, it seemed like 20 minutes! I was already counting seconds while on the MRT, and wondering why has time slowed to such a crawl?

See what happened to me? A very big time distortion.

I was perceiving time to go much slower than actual. It didn’t matter to me that the train was travelling at the same speed, and so are the seconds. What mattered then was the fact that I was late, and every time the door opened to another station full of people coming in and out of the train meant a few more “minutes” of delay.

Have you ever realised that the world is full of things that aren’t real? But they aren’t fake either! What am I talking about?

It’s about perception. We all perceive things and people, it’s just a matter of how intense it is. To what extent does it affect our judgement? What kind and extent of impact it has on our lives?

For example, the perception of value. Is a bag more valuable simply because Victoria Beckham is seen carrying it while supporting David Beckham on the field? Or does the bag get its value from its exquisite design, excellent worksmanship and rare materials? Or, only because it is a designer bag and it has a pricey tag to it?

Who knows, maybe another bag designed and hand-made by a not-known new designer might have a greater cost to it?

What about the perceived feeling of love? Too many times people get confused over possessiveness for genuine concern. But we all know they are hardly to be blamed, for who can have such a crystal clear mind to discern that act of concern is in fact the sugar coating for the person’s sense of insecurity and a streak of possessiveness?

This is a very common one – perception of distance. How many times have we felt that we have walked a much longer distance just because the place we are going is just across the road versus one that is behind our block of apartment and which is out of your sight? Just because it looks near, doesn’t mean it really is. Only when we timed it then we have the true answer.

Does the truth matter? Because I’ve realised that too often, we still don’t believe the results of our experiment, and we say “How can that be? But that looks so much nearer!”

We choose not to believe the facts, but to place trust on our perception. I don’t know why we choose to do this, but I know it can be dangerous if such trust is frequently misplaced. It can cause relationships to be broken; judgement to be compromised.

We all perceive. There’s nothing wrong about it. But do bear in mind to take some time, remove the outer layer of disguise and look underneath. We won’t know what we will find, until we dare to seek. And dare to acknowledge what we found.