Filters

Your eyes see all, right?  Maybe not.  They are limited by distance, clarity, your perceptions and 

expectations.

These are your filters.

I recently had a woman ask about our filters.  The way we view the world, our religious 

conceptions, how we see things in our mind.

 

A very different question.

 

She approaches religion as a filter.  There are many other filters that we have.

 

Some have to do with culture, some with ethnicity, some with how we were taught and expected to 

behave.

 

Barriers, limits and boundaries are very good.  So are fences.

But what if they good things out of our lives.

 

We recently have a Muslim living next door.  For a while they had a handyman, also Muslim, who 

was one of the nicest guys I ever met.  They don’t drink.  He did have a Hookah.  Very interesting 

and he did not smoke tobacco or any drugs (that I know of)

 

He was so interesting and open and willing to talk about his beliefs.  It was marvelous.  He is not 

working next door and I lost his phone number.  He lives in Long Beach area and Jamal was his 

name.  A wonderful person and I hope to meet him again.

If I would have filtered him out of my life I would have missed a layer of richness that his 

friendship added.

 

The comment by the woman above makes me wonder what other rich experiences I have filtered 

out of my life just because of the way I believed, or thought something about someone’s behavior 

that did not meet my expectation.  How limited am I?  Have I handicapped myself and my learning 

experience.

 

Jamal will make an appearance in one of my books simply because of the difference this type of 

character adds to everyday life.

 

Happy filtering, Dear Readers and Dear Writers.