What you see is not what you get
4th Mar 2008
Hello lovely people
Have you ever heard the expression “What you see is what you get”? What if what you see only gets you into trouble, because it is not what you get?
I have a favourite website called Effortless Prosperity which I visit every day. There is a Lesson of the day section that I find quite thought-provoking.
This message made me sit up and think: “Everything that I see happening around me has a meaning that I have given to it. When I am willing to let go of thinking that I know the real meaning, I notice that it is much different from what I thought it was. Today I realize and understand that the meaning I give to anything has nothing to do with its real purpose. I do not know the real meaning of what I see.”
We like to react emotionally and jump to conclusions, often regardless of the facts. Even when we do know the facts, we associate with the facts from our own perspective and do not bother getting the other side of the story, because our own versions are usually right.
Here is a Welsh folk tale that shows the danger of acting in haste and not confirming the other side of a story.
Prince Llywelyn of Gwynedd was given a large grey Irish wolfhound as a present from his father-in-law, King John of England. This hound, which he named Gelert, became his favourite, and accompanied him on all his hunting trips. One morning Prince Llywelyn went on a hunting trip to the mountains of Eryri, or Snowdonia in Wales. He called and called, but Gelert was nowhere to be seen. No matter how many times the hunting horn was blown, Gelert was nowhere to be found.
Prince Llywelyn was unhappy about this because Gelert was the fastest and bravest of all the hounds, and they both enjoyed the hunting. But Prince Llywelyn and his men did not want to wait, and set off from the hunting lodge without Gelert. It was not a good day, and Prince Llywelyn and his men returned earlier than usual.
While the servants stabled the horses, Prince Llywelyn went back to the hunting lodge. He found the door partly open, and the house was dead quiet, which was unusual. An ice-cold hand gripped his heart when he realised that his young son had been left in a cradle upstairs that morning with the servants.
Prince Llywelyn rushed up the stairs and found that everything was overturned and smashed. The maidservants were nowhere to be seen and there was blood everywhere. The cradle was lying on its side, empty. Gelert was lying on the floor, his jaws covered in blood and wagging his tail.
Prince Llewelyn was blind with fury at the betrayal of his favourite hound that had killed the baby boy, and his only thought was of revenge. He drew his sword and violently stabbed Gelert in the heart.
Gelert gave a low moan, but did not move, and then fell sideways, dead.
There was an answering cry from a pile of rags in the corner of the room. Prince Llewelyn looked under the rags and there was his baby boy, safe and sound. Gelert had defended the baby against intruders, and paid with his life.
In memory of his faithful dog, Llywelyn had a grave dug for him, outside his lodge, and erected a carved stone to mark the spot. The village which later grew up nearby was called after this, Beddgelert, the Grave of Gelert.
This story is only a few hundred years old. There is an even older Mongolian version that describes a king who went out hunting with his hawk. One day the king was tired and thirsty, and sat down next to a spring to have a drink.
The king filled his cup with the clear spring water, but before he could drink it, his hawk knocked over the cup with his wings, spilling the water on the ground. The king swore at the bird, and refilled the cup with spring water. Again, the hawk knocked over the cup, and the king cuffed the bird out of the way. The king filled the cup a third time, holding tightly onto it, but the hawk dug his talons into the king’s wrist to make him drop it. The king lost his temper, drew his sword and cut off the hawk’s head.
When the king picked up the cup again, he looked up and noticed a snake sitting on the rock above the spring, dripping its venom down into the spring water. The hawk had been protecting the king.
These two stories confirm that having a knee-jerk reaction to situations, followed up by false accusations and hasty actions that we regret later on, are as old as our memories.
Remember this: I do not know the real meaning of what I see.
Read an extract from Red, a short story that illustrates how we do not understand the real meaning of anything at first glance.
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Love and Light
Elsabe
