Even an open book needs a mirror

[Xander]

I guess even an open book has difficulty reading it's pages without a mirror

This quote deserves it's own thread, because you can take this in so many different directions.

Who defines what is an open book? Is we or someone else who determines whether or not we're open? Can it be assumed that you read yourself if you're open? And who or what is the mirror which allows you to see yourself as you are? Does being an open book mean that we see ourselves completely as we are?

What say you?

 

[Gaze]

The questions seem a bit awkward. Feel free to edit it them if you like.

 

[Xander]

The questions seem a bit awkward. Feel free to edit it them if you like.

I thought it quite the intuitive set of questions myself...

Perhaps it deserves more expansion?

If you are an open book, an easy read, then does this infer that you know yourself well? Even someone who is as open and as honest as possible can still deceive themselves.

Merging two quotes off the quotes thread if your best mirror is an old friend and you require a decent mirror to read your own open pages then does this infer that your old friend is the best person to ask about reading you? Doesn't that then infer that a new person has nothing to add, which is most certainly untrue?

Basically no matter how uncomplicated you believe yourself to be, could it not be just as plausible that you ignore your complexities, brush over your contradictions and fool yourself?

 

[enigma]

I have some thoughts on this..
As an infj, I am very sensitive to others, how they are feeling, how I feel they perceive me. I think I am very easy to read, so I am confounded when people just don't get me. Or have this bizarre take on me.
For the most part I laugh, but there are times it really gets to me. For those like me who are so sensitive, I am the book, others are the mirror, and I see myself as I perceive they see me. Which when low esteem plays a role can wreak havoc, because it is a false mirror.

 

[enigma]

I thought it quite the intuitive set of questions myself...

Perhaps it deserves more expansion?

If you are an open book, an easy read, then does this infer that you know yourself well? Even someone who is as open and as honest as possible can still deceive themselves.

Basically no matter how uncomplicated you believe yourself to be, could it not be just as plausible that you ignore your complexities, brush over your contradictions and fool yourself?

I fool myself everyday. Realizing this is when we best turn the mirror upon ourselves.

 

[dneecey]

Perhaps being an open book means who you are is readily available for all to see. There is nothing held back, and you're open to the interpretation of others, even though you may be taken differently, because no ones perspectives are exactly the same.

Now, if you are an open book to others then chances are you believe that you are open to yourself as well, but I can see how that isn't always the case. There are things about ourselves we may not see because our eyes just don't readily notice those things...

So perhaps our best mirrors are our fruits. The whole, you reap what you sow thing. The best way to see ourselves is to know how we are seen and taken by others, and perhaps that is why it is best to be an open book to others if self evaluation is what you're after.

Otherwise, we're just getting back what we're showing to others and not truly trying to better ourselves...

Did that make any sense? Or am I just talking nonsense here?

 

[gloomy-optimist]

I'm more likely to be the mirror than to be the book.

 

[Space Cadet]

It doesn't matter how open a book is if you can only see the back cover.

 

[Outside]

We are books that are very dynamic. What I get angry about is when people do not recognize the how dynamic each individual book is. I can pass someone off as merely a static source of information at times, which is horrible. Its as if we are usually partially open or closed, but our real triumphs occur when we release the internal tension and just allow ourselves to open up, or we open ourselves up when alone to record more information.

If you are an open book, an easy read

So you are saying that mentally we operate on a basic universal internal language? I wonder about that question often. Or were you saying that if you are A) and open book and B) and easy read?

So perhaps our best mirrors are our fruits. The whole, you reap what you sow thing. The best way to see ourselves is to know how we are seen and taken by others, and perhaps that is why it is best to be an open book to others if self evaluation is what you're after.

Otherwise, we're just getting back what we're showing to others and not truly trying to better ourselves...

Did that make any sense? Or am I just talking nonsense here?

This is the great thing about empathy. It will travel from you to another and then back to you, and hopefully out again with more momentum. Recognize the benefits, but see them as a product of both you and another person or people.

 

[enigma]

Perhaps being an open book means who you are is readily available for all to see. perhaps that is why it is best to be an open book to others if self evaluation is what you're after.

Otherwise, we're just getting back what we're showing to others and not truly trying to better ourselves...

Very well put, dneecey

 

[IndigoSensor]

An open book needs a mirror:

This is how I interpret it. Someone who is an open book; they lay it all out on the table. If they feel something, they will tell you. If they think something they will tell you. They announce all of their observations to the world, and everyone around them. They do not feel the need to hide any part of themselves from the world. There could be many reasons for this. Nevertheless there is a common theme. One who shows the world everything about themselves, does not take the time to actually look at who they are. Their inner processing shuts down, and they aren't able to reflect on something completely. They could encounter mounds of issues with themselves and never understand them. It will take a mirror, in the form of another person, or an identical event, to trip them into realizing who they are, and what they are doing.

 

[Afrelen]

You know, an open book implies you haven't finished it yet.

 

[randomsomeone]

I am an open book that anybody is welcome to read. However, what they don't know (and don't ask about) it that the book they are reading is only Volume 1...there are twenty others. And the mirror....well the mirror is needed once one realizes that the books can also be read upside down and backwards...that is a whole other story! Needless to say, most never have the interest or attention span to read the entire book, nevermind the other nineteen. And the hidden message? Forget it! Mostly they just work off the assumption that this one book in front of them is all there is. They glance at the cover and walk away. It'd be more of a pity if it didn't happen almost every single time!!