Korzybski said “The map is not the territory..” Which was famously quoted by Robert De Niro in Ronin. The picture of the American River in Sacramento California you see below is not the river. It is a picture of the American River.
AmericanRiverReflection092312
As pretty as this picture is, does it do the river justice? You can make some observations about the picture of the river. If I hadn’t labeled the picture with a location and time, perhaps you would have guessed an estuary somewhere else.
Maybe you would think this spot on the American River was far from civilization, and not 1.62 miles from one of the busiest commute arteries in the greater Sacramento area. You might not even know it was in the US, much less in California.
In this case the label made the picture represent something in your mind. The label and the picture are, in essence, a map, and the map is not the territory.
If you are familiar with the area, you could figure out the time of day and the time of year and the temperature and many other things from this picture.
So this is a picture of a reflection of a river. What kind of pictures of other reflections are you looking at in your life? Words aren’t thoughts. Many of us read books or articles by others and base our thoughts on their words. We see the reflection of the world filtered through their brain and their words.
Who paints these pictures for you? Is the reflection you see through the eyes of others more clear and bright because of who painted the picture or dim and murky because of the artist or writer? I am not telling you to pay more attention to one author or painter or musician or sculptor and less to another. I am simply asking you to think about how a reflection of the world can influence you. You base your opinions and beliefs and actions on reflections all the time. The first step is to realize that everything, other than what you experience and observe yourself, is a reflection seen through someone else’s eyes. This reflection is then filtered and presented to you.
How accurate is the reflection?