On Getting Upside-Down

I just discovered that the young woman/old woman above is from a German postcard by an anonymous creator from 1888. I’ve often used a version of it when working with teenagers prone to violence to help them learn about perspective. We might see a person, object, or event in a certain way but someone else might see it differently and that might be equally valid. Many young people get a lot of enjoyment from flipping the picture in the mind from the young woman to the old woman and back – and some only see one face no matter how it is explained. It takes practice to extend the exercise toward those we care about and their odd ways of seeing reality and then to those who really piss us off.

I find it really interesting that we don’t seem to be able to really see both simultaneously. Our formations seem to allow for just one reality at a time and the best we can do is hold that reality gently.

The photo also provides a visual for the old Zen sound bite: “Things are not as they seem, nor are they otherwise.”

When Wild Fox Zen was getting going a few years ago, someone offered to pay for a “logo” and had a local artist in mind, Bob Schmitt at Laughing Water Studio. We went to see Bob and I told him the story of the Wild Fox Koan and what I had in mind for Wild Fox Zen. It turns out that Bob had a strong background in spiritual practice and we communicated really easily. Inadvertently, during the conversation I also expressed my liking for shapes like the young woman/old woman. A couple weeks later, we met Bob again at his studio and I was delighted that he had designed a form for the logo that shifts. You might see just one at first … but if you investigate with gentleness, you will see the other.



You can check out more of Bob’s work at http://www.laughingwatersstudio.com/htmls/design.html