Hidden in Plain Sight

It must have been back in the 90’s, but I remember a phenomenon sweeping the nation. Maybe even the world. Remember the artwork that had hidden images and the only way you could see what was hidden was by letting your eyes blur and quit looking at what you see but notice what was sub-strata. Hidden in the colors, shapes and artist imaginative art was a hidden figure.

To be truthful, there were some images I never grasped the hidden image. For a while, I thought it was an eye problem. More than likely my brain never allowed for what my eyes could distinguish. Even if you told me what was hidden, I still could not see. It was hiding in plain sight!

It’s almost like that saying of old, “You can’t see the forest for the trees.” Essentially, you can’t see the whole due to your focus issue! This popularized idiom has a history of nearly 500 years! [Source]

I woke early thinking about, for some odd reason, background noise. Go figure. My brain does some of the weirdest thinking while I’m asleep and I never know where my mind will be as the world comes awake.

But we seem to enjoy music in the background. Right? Not so fast bubba! To me, music is made to be listened to and I have a hard time holding a conversation with you when you want to play music that is meant for you. Music without words played ever so lightly is background noise I can handle. But put words to it, and make it something I know, well, the story changes tunes rapidly!

Yesterday. Three different stores playing elevator music or something that is supposed to make you slow down and enjoy the experience…and spend more money! Three different stores and in each one I find that faint background noise to be music that I enjoy. Immediately I quit focusing on the store experience and began singing the song out loud. If my bride was with me then she would hush me up! 

But I noticed something. That store music I enjoyed made my mind focus on what I needed and it’s like a race…can I get it, check out and be gone before the next song comes on! Sometimes the background has an alternate effect!

Several days ago, and for several weeks I’ve noticed, that my phone has silently rung and I’ve not caught it. Since Ma Bell and the mobile world has given me the power of disconnecting that harsh and discordant sound that shatters my peace, I’ve taken to keeping my home phone unplugged at night, and my mobile phone only on vibrate-mode. Why? I like to be in control. There. Said it. I dislike so much that noise can ruin the moment of focus!

Have you ever watched someone when the phone rings and they lose complete touch with the world around them as they scramble to answer the phone from someone in another place and time? They’ve left what they are doing for that which they deem more important. It totally bugs me! It’s like Call Waiting. Don’t you dare put me on hold and go answer the other line! Let them call back. I’m here. Now. Having a conversation with you. “If that is more important”, I say, “then I’ll talk to you later when you have time to focus on this conversation.” 

I’ve hung up on many folks who think the other line is more important.

Even better, have you engaged in a conversation and the other end of the line tries to have a conversation with you, and someone else in their room, or even their dog? I never know who holds your attention! I can always find a better time to talk to you. If I were an important business contact you would not even dream of distracting the moment with background conversations!  

Yesterday I was waiting for a plumber to show up and work on a problem I was having. The house is nice and quiet. I know he’s on the way so I’m standing at the kitchen counter awaiting his arrival. I’m reading a magazine and then the doorbell rings and startles me into a near panic! The magazine hits the floor and had I been holding my coffee cup then I know the floor would have shattered my favorite mug.

Later, I realized I’ve missed several calls on my mobile phone and it was sitting right next to me. I test my mobile phone with a test call and it did vibrate as it should and I could hear it clattering on the desk. But for some reason I did not hear it, nor feel it. And I realized something. In its non-ringing state, my phone has become part of the background noise of my life that I can easily not hear. Just like those hidden images I could not see.

Before you complain about not being able to reach me, I do turn off the ringers mainly to quiet the incessant lawbreakers that call my numbers (yes, I have more than 1 number) even though I’m on the Do Not Call registry! I’m allowed to block certain callers by their unwanted actions, just like I’m able to turn off the ringer when I do not want to be disturbed! Deal with it!

It bothers me that some things become so taken for granted that it can easily be part of my background that I never notice it’s gone silently into the noise of life that is hidden in plain sight. This could be connected to people who have melted into our background, as well as once favorite things that no longer make us happy.

This made me remember a song that became popular in 1970, you know, back in the dark ages when I was only 15! Remember “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell… Sure you do…

They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot SPOT

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone?
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot

You don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone… Maybe I should turn my ringer back on for a while… Nope! It’s gone!

This is what I love about reading and studying. Whether a novel, or leadership book, or the bible, I always find things I’ve missed in prior moments of attention. Let me give you an example.

Back in the early 90’s we were challenged to read the book of Acts every day for 30 days. Just one month. It takes about 2.5 hours to read all 28 chapters. I accepted the challenge, put aside my other reading objects and took hold of the task and totally enjoyed it. Except. The first day I made it all the way through. The second reading I got bogged down in Acts 22 where Paul begins to recite his conversion experience. I began to compare his recitation to the original event found in Acts 8/9 and I see it from his perspective as a story to tell.

• The third reading I bogged down in Acts where Paul had his Macedonia Vision and I began thinking about visions, dreams, and calls of God.
• The fourth reading I could not get past Acts 10 where Peter had his vision and Cornelius had his answer to prayer.
• The fifth reading I could not get past Peters first preached message in Acts 2.
• The sixth reading…well, let’s just say that the first 8 verses of the first chapter garnered my attention.

Suddenly, a week is gone and I realized something. Sometimes we get so busy with the reading schedule that we fail to see the whole storyline. Why? We’ve learned to be blind to the background noise, you know, the back story. The facts and figures that are part and parcel of the whole. But when you start breaking it apart and looking at all the pieces that make up the whole, then you realize how important the background is.

Here’s my thought. Take a moment to notice your background. Noise. Images. People. Places. Things. Each, at some point, was important enough for you to include them in your life and like a toy no longer matching your desires it gets put away, filed on a shelf, just waiting for someone to find them all over again. And treat it/them as the important part of your life that they are.

Quickly… Did you look over your should and see what was in your background?