Yes, the actual expression is "possession is 9/10ths of the law".
However, it has been my experience that the same rule applies to perception.
In the same way that possession of something makes it difficult (if not impossible) to change ownership, the way something is perceived is difficult (if not impossible) to change.
Unless the one perceiving changes his or her own perception by what he perceives.
You still with me?
Here's an example:
I was in the car with three of my friends.
We were rolling up to a stop sign next to a bank, animatedly conversing among ourselves while doing so.
Our conversation was stopped short when we noticed a man that had pulled up to the ATM machine in his truck.
He had a dog tied to his back bumper.
The dog was slumped over and had difficulty walking.
We all gasped as we took in the situation at precisely the same moment.
There was approximately 1.3 seconds of silence.
The silence was broken by the following exclamations (in no particular order):
"Oh my gosh!"
"Gasp!"
"Does he even know the dog is back there?"
"I hope he lives in town!"
"What should we do?"
By this point we had reached the stop sign and the elderly gentlemen was out of his vehicle.
The friend that was sitting in the back seat closest to the man flung her door open and was yelling at the man in order to alert him to the fact that his dog was tied to his bumper.
He didn't hear her as he was walking around to the back of the truck.
He picked up the dog and put him in the bed of truck.
He had none of the look of concern, shock or dismay that you would imagine a man to have upon discovering that he'd been dragging his dog to the ATM machine while attached to his bumper.
At this point we have made our left hand turn, thereby catching an almost 360 degree view of this perplexing situation.
We are now simultaneously spewing out sentences like the following:
"How did he not know he was back there?"
"Poor dog!"
"I wonder how long he was dragging him?"
The man had walked back around to the ATM machine and went about his business of withdrawing money (I'm assuming).
There was a brief moment of silence at which point I think we all came to the same realization.
Someone verbalized our discovery:
"Wait a minute! I bet the dog jumped out of the truck when he rolled to a stop."
Everyone else filled in the gaps with:
"He was limping because he's so old."
"The man has him tied to a rope because the dog always jumps out."
"He doesn't want him running away but he doesn't want to leave him at home."
This was followed by a collective sigh of relief.
And laughter.
What's important to note about this whole story is that I guess-timated the time in which it all transpired...
No more than 30 seconds.
Probably more like 20 seconds.
We were shocked, appalled, concerned, perplexed, contemplative and then relieved all in the span of 20 seconds.
All because of what we perceived.
And had we only witnessed the first 5 seconds of the situation we would probably still be convinced that there's an elderly man driving around town with a dog attached to his bumper, completely unaware.
B
You can see the rest of this session here under "Merissa S".
Up next: Baby L
5 comments:
That is really funny. BTW: I like the fifth photo of Merissa the most.
Merissa you look amazing! I love the 1st and 6th pictures. B you lost me for a sec, but the story made it clear to me what you were talking about. Very funny story by the way.
The first one, all the yellow ones, and the black and white in the polka dots! Ms. Button you look stunning in all and it was hard for me to narrow it down to those. And the swing, I'm still addicted to the swing.
And B once again you are right, perception is 9/10ths of the law. Sometimes we never change our perception, and that is on us.
Aww thank you guys! My dad said this: She (B) must have done a lot of editing. Hahahaha. But he was just kidding....i think.
Marissa - Uncle Matt and I think you are absolutely beautiful! Still can't believe you're a Senior this year! Good luck with the year ahead. We are proud of you and love you VERY much! XOXO
Uncle Matt & Aunt Val
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