We are too often stuck in seeing the world in only one way and forget that we can be led to different viewings.
A wealthy oil baron once commissioned Picasso to paint a portrait of his wife. When the work was completed, the baron was shocked to see the image that had been created. “Why that looks nothing like my wife! You should have painted her the way she really is!” Picasso took a deep breath and said, “I’m not sure what that would be.” Without hesitation, the oil baron pulled out his wallet and removed a photograph of his wife saying, “There, you see, this is a picture of how she really is!” Picasso, bending over, looked at it and replied, “She is rather small and flat, isn’t she?”
The point is clear: The man was so wrapped up in HIS view of his wife he could not understand anyone else’s view of her.
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Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com , May, 2001. Adapted from: Bradford Keeney, Everyday Soul , New York: Riverhead Books, 1996, p. 30.