Look at the image above. Can you tell me what the picture is? Can you tell me what any given individual piece is? Of course not. My asking you to do so is just silly. Yet we do similar things every day. To our fellow human beings.
One of the big stories in the news is "the MAGA kid". Given the current political climate, the conclusion most of us jumped to was a reasonable one, but apparently we were wrong. To what degree we were wrong remains to be seen. But that video is just one piece of the puzzle.
As more of the puzzle is assembled, the big picture is very complex. I do stand by my description of the boy's expression as a smirk, though, although I'm no longer certain why he's smirking.
In essence, we picked up a single puzzle piece and decided what the entire picture was.
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I see this a lot in smaller ways, every day. Pretend you see the following: A middle aged woman is checking out at Wal-Mart. Within the purchases, you see a Barbie doll and a Nerf gun. Who is the doll for? The gun?
Look at a picture and write a story about it. That's one of my favorite writing exercises.
The tendency to do this - to fill in the rest of the picture - is not something to be ashamed of. It's hard wired into the human brain. But we gotta be careful not to let it get the best of us. Remain open to more information. And, you know, don't go on a uninformed rampage. That we should be ashamed of.
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