Who is That?

I had to attend a Zoom meeting for work. I had an old laptop and a newer Chromebook. I wanted to test the difference in performance between the two, so I logged into the meeting on both. (My old laptop performed better than the Chromebook, just in case you were curious.)

When I logged into the meeting with both devices, I got a big surprise. I saw my face as everyone else sees it. That is to say, I saw my face not as a mirrored image. I saw what everyone else sees rather than what I see when I look in the mirror. I was shocked at how different I looked. I recognized myself, but not really. Everything I'm used to seeing was off. 

This was a profound experience because it made me think about all the time I've ever spent primping and looking in a mirror and how what I see is never what anyone else sees. Try it for yourself.  Switch your camera to non mirrored, or log into a Zoom meeting on two devices. 

What I see in the mirror is not the same as what everyone else sees. So all the time I've spend making myself look good for other people was quite foolish. I almost feel like the world has been playing a really long lasting joke on me. 

At first, I was kind of upset thinking about all the time I had wasted, but now I think maybe it's just a good joke/lesson. We'll never see ourselves as others see us.  

We cannot control or even see how other people see us, so why bother? Let's just focus on how we'd like to see ourselves and forget about the rest.