On looking and seeing

For no particular reason, while walking yesterday I decided to see if I could name all the streets in the neighborhood before I reached them on one of my usual routes. To my surprise, while I have walked that course on hundreds (if not thousands) of occasions over the years, I could not name every street on it without inspecting the sign at the corner first.

I think this surprised me because I've looked at those signs on numerous occasions, but not in such a way that it's name lodged itself in my memory. How could that be?

This leads me to an idea I've thought about since; that there seems to be a difference between looking at something and really "seeing" it. I look at street signs all the time, or cars which pass me on the route, or people who happen to be outside or walking as I pass. Yet how often do I actually "see" these signs, cars, and people? To the extent that I remember them, it would seem only a fraction of the time.

There are, I think, pluses and minuses to this approach. On the one hand, just looking at things allows one to note their presence while remaining focused on the big picture; one notices cars that drive by for instance, but only to the extent that they don't jump the curve and attack (so to speak). On the other hand, only looking at something could greatly reduce the chance one will learn something of more-lasting value from the object in question. So for example, if I look at a person in passing but note nothing of their appearance, I would probably not recognize them were they to appear again.

I suppose the point of this minor observation rests on the assumption that passive looking does not ensure seeing; seeing requires effort, consciously applied in a way that looking does not. Humans are always "looking" at the world, taking in feedback from all sources about the environment, but how often do we actually "see" the things which daily cross our path? To what extent do we rely on passive observation and mental short-cuts to get through the day? I think it's probably more often--and to a far greater extent--than we realize, which is okay in and of itself since we seem to be constituted to work in this fashion. But making an effort to "see" what's going on around us may yield some interesting results.

Happy Friday, friends :)