My favorite color is red; always has been. I loved red Popsicles, red lollipops- anything red. It doesn't matter that I also like the cherry flavor. My very first car was red; as is the car I drive today. I have wondered from time to time if everyone sees the color red the same way I do. Intuitively it would seem so. Color is the result of certain wavelengths of light being reflected from an object, so it would seem to make sense. Those wavelengths don't change for me or for you. But what about our receptors, the corneas and lenses in our eyes; not to mention our brains - are they all identical? I can't state one way or the other as a layman, but I wonder.

I do know that several people can look at the same object or event and report quite differently on them. Eyewitnesses at accidents and crime scenes are notoriously unreliable. They haven't actually witnessed different events; rather they've witnessed them differently. Each of has been conditioned by all of the various events and people in our lives. We have our individual likes, dislikes, biases and prejudices. One person driving at an interchange spots a person with a sign asking for money – will work for food. He or she sees some shiftless lazy beggar, and won't even acknowledge them. Another drives by and sees someone who's down on their luck and stops and gives them a dollar or two. Consider that they're both wrong to a degree – the person is mentally disabled and therefore destitute.

In the gospel of John, Chapter 9 Christ says of the Pharisees, "because you say you see your sin remains". I believe this parable speaks to, not our physical sight alone, but to our spiritual and moral sight as well. In our seeing and making judgments regarding our fellow travelers. How easy it is to discount someone based on his or her religion, race, or any other characteristic we may deem "undesirable".

I know that this has been detrimental to me many more times than once. There was a story a while ago in Readers Digest about a husband and wife who went into McDonalds for breakfast one day. (This was from an observer of the incident) Two very dirty and odiferous men came into the restaurant and everyone tried to avoid them, including the counter people. The wife on seeing this went to the counter, ordered food and coffee for the men and gave it to them. The gratitude that was reflected in their faces was what prompted the witness to write to Readers Digest.

I can't tell you how that affected me other than to say that I now try to look with my heart as well as my eyes as this lady so obviously did. I think we would all be better served by doing so, I know this story enriched my life.