As I was looking for a book in my bookcase, I was drawn to open one that was very popular a few years ago featuring pictures called “stereograms.” A stereogram is a 3D picture that has a form, such as a butterfly or a flower, hidden inside a pattern. Often the pattern looks like wallpaper. In order to detect the form in the pattern, the eye needs to break away from the pattern, and focus on the less obvious form within it. This is somehow difficult because normally the eye tends to stay focused on the first image it sees. Looking beyond what you see at first glance can demand effort, time, and patience.
In the past, I had trained myself to do so, and I began to concentrate on a stereogram I remember liking in the book, to see, out of curiosity, if I could glimpse the butterfly in it again. At first, I had a hard time finding it, since the colors in the pattern blended into one another so well, which made it challenging to look beyond the pattern. I smiled as I thought that if I had shown the stereogram to a friend without any explanation, and said, “Look at the butterfly!” my friend would have insisted that she saw only a wallpaper pattern, while I would have maintained that there was a butterfly.
Looking beyond what you see at first glance can demand effort, time and patience.
