You are your Filter

You look in the mirror, adjusting a few loose strands of hair. Glancing at your phone, you check the temperature outside. Donning a coat, you grab your keys and open the door; this, all while running through a mental list of priorities. Once outside, you immediately turn to the left and begin a moderately brisk walk. Occasionally leaking into your perception- the smell of exhaust and the sound of engines, humming at different frequencies, as cars pass you on the right. You feel the crisp air bite at your exposed flesh- chilling, dry but clean. Your thoughts transition to wondering about whether you should grab a bagel or simply proceed unimpeded to your destination. A middle-aged man is walking a dog across the street and you begin to ponder the breed of the animal. The sun breaks away from a cloud- it's energetic brilliance suddenly felt in a blinding and uncomfortable way. You squint and turn your face slightly to the side.

Perception. This idea can represent multiple things. In the objective realm it can simply mean your awareness of the elements through physical sensation. This is simple enough for us to understand. However, it can also stand for abstract concepts: intuitive cognition, capacity for comprehension or, what I would like to expand on: Your Filter.

No matter how intelligent or observant you believe yourself to be, you cannot comprehend all things at once. Most will agree on this and call it 'omniscience', designating it only to God or gods.

There is a manifold of things, both physical and abstract, which can be perceived. In turn, the perception can be experienced in an infinite number of ways; and most interestingly, the perception itself can be perceived.

Now, I realize I just threw a lot out there. Allow me to crystallize as best I can.

We inherently apply perceptive filters to the world of things and ideas spiraling around us. Like the aperture of a camera, it can only open so wide and remain open for so long before an abundance of light saturates the film, leaving it overexposed. Perhaps that example wasn't the best. The idea I am going for is this- our perceptive filter allows us to focus and function a midst so much information.

Stand in a packed music venue. Sound blaring, lights flashing, the smells of sweat, spilled drinks, cigarettes and marijuana, all combining to create a new cocktail of aromas and stimuli. This can be exciting, the abundance of sensations drowning out useless thoughts. Just the same, it can also be uncomfortable, requiring you to step outside or retreat to the bar.

Now sit in a quiet room, perhaps a basement, by yourself. Cut the lights. Introduce a new stimuli. Light a candle and watch the flame flicker, the way it casts a gentle hue across objects, splaying dancing shadows, which create new shapes. Put it out. Play some music. Something that moves you. Listen to a couple tracks; or better yet, the whole album. You probably will hear things you never had before. The point here being to restrict that aperture and sense a particular thing in greater detail.

Our minds can work a lot like those examples above. We are highly perceptive and can process more things than we realize at any given moment. What we may not realize is that we are processing things on multiple levels. You may only be cognizant of one or two particular levels at a time. Like I mentioned earlier, you can not take in everything all at once. You would become overexposed.

I'm not sure if I just narrowed down my thoughts to a particular point, or just threw out a lot of ideas. This is a difficult thread to translate. I was going to try to dive into the thought of "thoughts" themselves and how they bend into one another, generally as a result of whatever filter we are applying. That is a little too much right now, and I may just keep talking in circles.

Finally, to the title of this post: You are your Filter. I'm not claiming to have wrapped up the concept of identity into a neat little package by talking about our filters. However, I will attempt to tie the two together. I believe we can be defined by the filter we apply to the world. This encompasses the little, and even complex, things we choose to focus on. Whatever bias it brings and however it was formed, this is simply our awareness and it makes us us.