Is It Really What It Appears to Be?

ELAINE S. BERMAN

One morning at four thirty I woke up and noticed that the hall light was still burning. The last of our two sons to come home always turned out the light. That night one of them had taken the car and the other gone on foot. From the window I could see the parked car, so I knew the son who had gone in it was home, but where was the other? I lay in bed until six o'clock, praying to quiet my concern.

Suddenly a thought occurred to me, "Are you sure he's not home?" Checking their bedroom I found them both sound asleep!

Things are not always what they appear to be. Because a light had been left on, I had reached a wrong conclusion. The material senses divert us, unless we are alert, from making scientifically clear, accurate judgments. The unreliability of the testimony of these senses impels the progressive thinker to penetrate beyond what appears to be real, in order to discover what actually is real.

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