Frame of reference

I like reading thrillers. And one of my favourite fiction characters is Jack Reacher. He is an ex-military cop who, after having left the US Army, hitchhikes across America and gets involved in all kinds of exciting stories. Jack is always on the side of the weak and is a strong advocate of justice. His army connections, combat training and imposing physical stature help him on his mission.

I read these crime novels in the English original. As I am under the impression that the English language is just perfect for this crime genre.

In one situation Jack puts pressure on a witness because only she can provide him with the information necessary to clarify the case. The dark side has kidnapped her son to silence her for a limited period of time. Nevertheless, Jack manages to get her to talk.

From his professional experience as a MP Major, he has a trained instinct for whether or not his counterpart is telling the truth. He had learnt that the truth has a very special underlying structure. It is far less smooth than a lie.

Jack believes the woman's statements. She is the HR manager of an electronics company, with a small son and a pretty house in the suburbs of a big city. And he believes her, because what she tells him with heavy sobs is outside her usual "frame of reference". Her story cannot originate in her fantasy because such things have not been part of her agenda. They are beyond her life experience and beyond her imagination.

I could not get this interesting explanation out of my mind.

We all have our personal frame of reference. It has been developed in context with our imprint, our life experience, our knowledge and our level of consciousness. What is possible and what is not? On which subjective truth have we built our lives'? What do we block out because it does not fit into our concept?

There are 'blind spots' in all of us. We do not see the famous elephant, even though it has been long ago since he made himself comfortable on our living room sofa.

Why? If we managed to become aware of these facts, it could turn our concept of life upside down. And the new insight would possess the power of pushing us into a different way of thinking and perceiving.

In the current crisis, with its numerous risks and side effects on our lives, I often think about these connections.

We are in search of truth, explanations and solutions. But we are not able to find them. As we are moving within our well-tried and familiar frame of reference. Abandoning it would get us involved in an additional risk.

Against this background, we are currently approaching a kind of turning point. Are we going to continue as before? At the end of a one-way road? Or are we prepared to open up to new paths?

© Solandra (October 21st, 2020)

Translated with the help of DeepL

Proofread by the author

Photo by Reinhart Julian on Unsplash