Seeing is believing … sort of

“I seen a peanut stand, heard a rubber band
I seen a needle that winked its eye.
But I be done seen about everything
When I see an elephant fly
(What’d you say, boy?)
I said, when I see an elephant fly” – Disney’s Dumbo

Blink has a new feature. I thought it was free, but it was a trial. I would have to pay such and such to continue it. 

Still, it was fun while it lasted. Normally Blink, I’m talking about the home security camera system I’m sure you figured out, just gives you a notification your camera has gone off, and then it’s up to you to look at your app to see why. (Also, only if you have a paid subscription for that feature.)

Under the new feature Blink was offering, it would attempt to identify what it saw. I have two camera systems, one at my home in Warner Robins and one at my home in Fort Valley. I also set up the system at The Houston Home Journal, so I monitor it.

At my home in Warner Robins it saw two “wolves” in my back yard. I kid you not! I looked. They were my son’s two German Shepherds. It also saw my son as a man wearing blue pants and a purple shirt. I looked. He was wearing khaki pants and a red shirt. (So, about 10 percent of the world is colorblind. Who am I to judge?) Squirrels picked up dancing in the trees were often mistaken as birds and vice versa for robins and wrens and such. 

At work it saw a variety of people coming and going and made a fashion show of trying to describe what they were wearing or even what they looked like. “There’s a skinny man walking around …” “There’s a …” Well, let’s just say Blink is not the most politically correct.

At my home in Fort Valley, we have a stray cat who typically shows up from time to time looking for a handout. (I’m sure the bowl my wife put out there wasn’t an encouraging sign.)  He’s tan and black and now she can brag to all of her other cats on a hot tin roof that Blink identified here as a “cougar”. 

Our other dog, a Border Collie, well, Blink identified it as a “panda”. And my wife? Well, she’s a modern-day Joseph. Blink saw her with her “coat of many colors” on. Aka as her bathrobe brightly decorated with “Frenchies” and speaking of which, it saw her brindle-colored Frenchie as a “bear”.

I guess AI sees what it sees. Which, it’s not alone. I suffer from that. I can’t count the time I’ve seen a large expenditure come out of our bank account, point the finger at her, only to find out it was me. (And my finger’s still in a cast by the way.)

This morning I saw a sheriff’s car parked on the side of Highway 49. Same car I’d seen at that very location every morning for months. Sitting there with nobody inside of it. The owner, I speculated, was inside as he or she always was, asleep. 

I saw … wrong! Fortunately, I wasn’t speeding … this time.

Maybe what we thought we saw wasn’t what we saw at all. Maybe in the grand scheme of things and all of our seeing this and seeing that and coming to conclusions about what we saw and criticizing and judging what we saw – about people and places and postulating (the act of suggesting, assuming or claiming something to be true) and what not.

“Having eyes to see, do you not see,” Jesus told His disciples, referring to maybe they weren’t being attentive or as receptive to His teachings as they thought they were. (In the same verse He also mentions “hearing”.)

Fill in the blank, if applicable. “I saw …” For the sake of broken friendships or perceived enemies or he said/she said or suspected transgressions, old hurts, new hurts, perhaps what you saw could use a second look.

If crows can see an elephant fly, I mean, shucks, maybe so can you and me.