{"id":5635,"date":"2021-09-08T16:52:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T23:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/?p=5635"},"modified":"2021-09-05T16:53:11","modified_gmt":"2021-09-05T23:53:11","slug":"look-and-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/2021\/09\/look-and-see\/","title":{"rendered":"Look and See"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a wide sea of eyes<\/em>
\nI see one pair that I recognize<\/em><\/p>\n

And I know<\/em>
\nThat I am\u2026 the luckiest<\/em>
\n-Ben Folds<\/p>\n

Last week I dropped my daughter off for her first day of Jr. high. She had gone through some agony to choose her outfit.<\/p>\n

I remember in 7th grade I was not satisfied with the choices that I had. In my mind, I could have looked so cool. But the clothes I had couldn\u2019t keep up. I landed on a signature choice: I wore different colored socks. I might even wear double slouch socks with four different colors. That was what I did with what I had. The Costco multipack of socks was squeezed of into an expression of uniqueness.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been an elusive goal my whole life. How can I be special?<\/p>\n

Life puts out cookie cutter molds and is not polite about making me fit.<\/p>\n

Pull back your irrational curls. Lower your voice. Wait your turn. Keep waiting.<\/p>\n

You have your place. Stay in your lane.<\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s nice to belong. It\u2019s scary to stand out.<\/p>\n

And yet I want to be seen.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a human need. Kids will cry \u201cLook at me!\u201d And grownups want to find that one person in a sea of humanity. Like the Ben Folds lyric I have at the beginning, to see and be recognized.<\/p>\n

You can see a sea. Look at me. See me.<\/p>\n

Being subsumed in a group can feel like drowning, but I\u2019m still alive. I\u2019m still here. I don\u2019t belong in anonymity.<\/p>\n

No one does.<\/p>\n

As much as I want to be seen, I want to see other individuals too. I want to hear your voices. You. Your voice.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the moments I want to live in, listening and sharing. And the world I want to live in. What amazing things can we create together?<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s easy for me to lend you a hand when you are too weak.<\/p>\n

Maybe you can give me a hug when I need it. Hugs are highly individual.<\/p>\n

We can remind each other of our humanity. And I will thank you for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a wide sea of eyes I see one pair that I recognize And I know That I am\u2026 the luckiest -Ben Folds Last week I dropped my daughter off for her first day of Jr. high. She had gone … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random-thoughts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5635"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5639,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5635\/revisions\/5639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}