Depression is a juxtaposition of focus and blur. The focus is inward; the blur, outward.
The depressed need a new lens, one that like the Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) gives a sharp view of all that is out there in the distance, that which is beyond personal. Perspective changes as lenses change. Fuzzy stuff at a distance can be clearly seen.
It’s all about perspective, isn’t it? I’m talking about your life—and mine. You and I can, of course, focus on the “inward” universe of our personal lives. At times that might be good, but good for us only insofar as we can also clearly see the encompassing “outward” universe and the places through which we move. The dual view is necessary for healthful living. Ironically, those who “focus” their attention inward when they feel depressed rarely have a clear view. The inside, without that balancing external perspective, is an engine clogged with carbon deposits, a cloudy drink, or a seedless melon with nothing on which to focus, some vague malaise as difficult to define as jello is, in John Candy’s words, “to nail to a tree.” Clarity comes only when the view inward occurs in the context of some wide field, the “out there and all around.”
Don’t feel bad if things aren’t quite in focus. Hubble was in the planning stage for decades and took many people to design, build, launch, repair, and improve. You might think that with all those bright engineers and skilled technicians that constructing a flawless telescope was a fait accompli from the start. Not so. The Hubble Space Telescope had to be repaired because its first images were blurry, and the Wide Field Camera 3 now in use is a later-generation instrument that was installed in 2009, nineteen years after the Hubble first reached orbit.
There’s a parallel here. The distant views provided by WFC3 have enabled astronomers to see the early universe. Looking outward gave them a view of our universe’s origin and nature that an inward perspective could never have provided. That outward view took us inside our very beginnings. Could an outward view do the same for us personally?
Getting the right lens and finding a precise focus is not an easy task for any of us. The goal of a healthful perspective is, however, worth the effort. It is also achievable only when we balance an inward perspective with a clear outward view.
The depressed need a new lens, one that like the Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) gives a sharp view of all that is out there in the distance, that which is beyond personal. Perspective changes as lenses change. Fuzzy stuff at a distance can be clearly seen.
It’s all about perspective, isn’t it? I’m talking about your life—and mine. You and I can, of course, focus on the “inward” universe of our personal lives. At times that might be good, but good for us only insofar as we can also clearly see the encompassing “outward” universe and the places through which we move. The dual view is necessary for healthful living. Ironically, those who “focus” their attention inward when they feel depressed rarely have a clear view. The inside, without that balancing external perspective, is an engine clogged with carbon deposits, a cloudy drink, or a seedless melon with nothing on which to focus, some vague malaise as difficult to define as jello is, in John Candy’s words, “to nail to a tree.” Clarity comes only when the view inward occurs in the context of some wide field, the “out there and all around.”
Don’t feel bad if things aren’t quite in focus. Hubble was in the planning stage for decades and took many people to design, build, launch, repair, and improve. You might think that with all those bright engineers and skilled technicians that constructing a flawless telescope was a fait accompli from the start. Not so. The Hubble Space Telescope had to be repaired because its first images were blurry, and the Wide Field Camera 3 now in use is a later-generation instrument that was installed in 2009, nineteen years after the Hubble first reached orbit.
There’s a parallel here. The distant views provided by WFC3 have enabled astronomers to see the early universe. Looking outward gave them a view of our universe’s origin and nature that an inward perspective could never have provided. That outward view took us inside our very beginnings. Could an outward view do the same for us personally?
Getting the right lens and finding a precise focus is not an easy task for any of us. The goal of a healthful perspective is, however, worth the effort. It is also achievable only when we balance an inward perspective with a clear outward view.
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