I write and talk too much. The irony is, what I usually write and talk about is perception, which is the exact opposite of writing and talking. So I contradict myself. I recommend one thing but I do another.

It’s not because I don’t see the contradiction. It’s because I don’t know how to promote perception any other way.

Why do I want to promote perception? Because I think it’s buried. Otherwise, there would be more astonishment at where we are.

You can see the irony of the situation. I talk too much about not talking, whereas it seems that other people do not talk about not talking enough.

What do I mean by perception?

I mean that power we have to pick up on the scenes around us, the chairs and tables and windows and streets and all the other beautiful things and places that are looking back at you right now. Perception is our link with these. It is our link with what is. It connects us to the physical reality of human civilization on the earth. But it doesn’t just feed sensations into our brains. Perception is a form of thought too. It helps us make sense of landscapes and horizons we see and hear every day. It finds an order there that was previously invisible.

It’s not a gift or a talent that just a few people have. Everyone has it more or less. You couldn’t survive without it. If you are alive you perceive.

The trouble is, it doesn’t get the priority it deserves. It usually takes second place to what we think or what someone else thinks. And then we lose our connection with reality. People would rather talk than do almost anything else. Talk is automatic. You are alive, you talk. You’re dead, you don’t talk.

Case in point. I’m not perceiving right now. I’m talking.

But why would you want to perceive rather than talk?

Because where we are is fantastic.