03/07/2025
"We don't see thw world as it is. We see it as we are."- The Eternal Student 🙌👏👏
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒚 𝑳𝒂𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒚
They moved into the quiet neighborhood in early spring, when the air still had a bite and the mornings came wrapped in fog. The house wasn’t much—peeling paint, a tired porch—but it was theirs. Fresh start, they said. New beginnings.
Her name was Jen. She had a way of noticing things, often before her husband, Von, could even sip his Arabica coffee.
On their first morning, as sunlight fought its way through the gray skies of the valley, she peered through the kitchen window. Across the narrow backyard, their neighbor—a woman about her age—was hanging laundry, her hands steady, her face unreadable.
Jen squinted. “Would you look at that,” she muttered, setting down her mug. “Her laundry’s filthy. Honestly, how does she not see it? She must not know how to wash properly. Or maybe she’s using some bargain-bin detergent.”
Von didn’t answer. He sat quietly, watching her instead of the neighbor.
But every morning, it became a ritual. Jen would sip her coffee, glance out the window, and scoff at the woman’s laundry.
“Still dirty,” she’d say. “Imagine airing that in public.”
Von kept silent, always listening, always watching.
Then one morning, about a month later, Jen gasped, almost spilling her coffee. “Well, would you look at that,” she said, eyes wide with something between satisfaction and disbelief. “Her laundry’s finally clean. Someone must’ve shown her how it’s done.”
Von set down his newspaper, met her gaze, and spoke softly—too softly for the weight of his words.
“No one showed her anything,” he said. “I just got up early and cleaned our windows.”
Jen froze. She felt it then—her cheeks warming, the bitter taste of pride thick in her throat. The room seemed quieter. Or maybe it was her, seeing clearly for the first time.
Outside, the neighbor’s clothes danced in the breeze, bright and clean, as they always had been.
"Sometimes, the dirt we think we see in others isn’t theirs to bear. It's ours."
Moral of the story:
We don’t see the world as it is; we see it as we are.
Judging others rarely reveals who they are—but it always reveals something about ourselves.
