Not There - Until It Is

Most of us have had the experience of suddenly noticing something a great deal once it has become part of our frame of reference. The car that suddenly starts appearing everywhere after you begin driving one, the "new" word appearing in everything you read after you learn what it means, etc. What has been your most recent experience of this phenomenon?

I had no idea blogging was held in such low esteem before I began. If I had, given my need for approval, it's unlikely I'd have ever started. But start I did and ever since, few days have gone by when I haven't noticed something in print that bashes or belittles blogging - the NY Times is particularly disdainful. Over the past three and a half years, my empathy for people who sell used cars has appreciably increased.

Some days the discouraging words stop me cold. Then my logical mind reminds me it's not personal and I'm back on the horse. I also remind myself the critics of blogging were braying long before I began - just like people were driving that car or using that word, other things that escaped me until they didn't.


This post is lovingly dedicated to my sisters. The three of us have discussed this phenomenon - psychology calls it schemata (in our frame) vs. scotoma (a "blind spot" in our frame) - for many years. Take two, girls.