“I believe that my eyes are as good as yours.”
“Quite so,” he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing himself down into an armchair. “You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.”
In this extract from A Scandal in Bohemia Sherlock Holmes reminds Dr Watson that seeing is not the same as observing, that we may look but not engage with the subject.
Many (many) years ago my art teacher at Barnard Castle School, Douglas Pittuck, made the same point to my class. He pointed out that we frequently don’t notice beauty and patterns around us, and yet we see them. He invited us to make an effort to look and see, and remarked that we may like to look and perhaps draw, for example, the fanlights above the doors in the nearby village of Staindrop.
I did just that recently. I walked around the village green in Staindrop and looked at the doors and their fanlights. They are fascinating, and almost seem to compete against one another for interest and design. I’ve made, for here, a photo collage of ten of them.
The walk, the paying attention, the noticing the different geometric designs was a relaxing and reflective thing to do.
Stopping and intentionally looking for pattern, order, colour or beauty, can fill our minds with wonder. I’m grateful to Mr Sherlock Holmes, and more so to Douglas Pittuck, my early encouragers to stop, look and observe.
Lift up your eyes and see… (Isaiah 40.26)
Leave a Reply