Hello friends
I think most of us are familiar with the phrase “it is just a tip of an Iceberg”. This phrase was coined because when Icebergs break away from glacier or ice field it floats to the sea, the largest part of the ice is always hidden beneath the water surface, on the surface remains just a tip. They actually say about only one ninth of it remains above the surface.
This phrase is always used to mean that, a tip is just a hint, a revelation or a first signal of a much larger, complex or a difficult which is much larger. It means the most important aspects of issues and people are hidden from our view.
Allow me to add another quotes , to spice it up, Anais Nin said, we don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are. What sees then is not they eyes but the brain, the eye only captures the picture but the mind interprets the picture according to its preconditions.
I read a book titled “Apples are Square” it is a leadership book by Susan Kuczmarski & Thomas Kuzczmarski. In this book the author retells a story of the guy by the names of Christopher Zorich. He played professional football with Chicago Bears and The Washington Redskins. Zorich said, “I came from a poor family, food was hard to get. But his mom could work hard and make sure her children had something to eat, more importantly she made sure they ate apples every evening. She could go the supermarkets dumpster and pick thrown away apples which had began to rote. When she came home secretly she cleaned them and surgically cut away the rotten parts. So always we were served clean and squared apples after removing the bad parts, we did not know those apples were picked from the dumpster and that naturally apples are not square. I believed square was the natural shape of apples, until I was much older”. This guy grew up with the mindset that apples are square, until a certain age.
Note,
Just because you saw it doesn’t meaning it is what you saw, something is messing up your judgment.
This is true to most of us, we grew up in a certain set up, we went through a certain experience, our families held certain values. All these things preconditioned our mindset with certain biasness. We view and judge all things through biased mindset. We are ready to die, to fight or hate for what we perceive to be a reality even if it’s not, just because we were made to believe, without asking why. Anais was right we don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are. We grow up messed up mentally.
When you compound these two statements,
“We do not see things as they are; we see them as we are” plus “is just a tip of an iceberg”.
You get the picture how messed up things are. It becomes clear, how much hard it is to make a correct judgment of things from the first appearance or impression. People can be more than how they look, things can be more than how they appear and issues can be more than or different to what they present on the surface. Yet life is about making decisions, choices, sometime giving your opinion and pass a judgment of which is which so that you can know where you stand. Life is about relationships yet people are mysterious and tricky.
This is my advice to you do not stop at the first appearance of things or people, if you should then dig a little deeper to get to know them better, do not make quick promises, commitment, friendship or partnership with someone if you do not have enough knowledge about them, because people are like icebergs all you see is one ninth, the rest is beneath the surface. When you see that do not ignore or despise but pay attention investigate more, watch out. Learn to see beyond the surface line.
Treat issues also in the same way not only people. Do not be fooled with the smallness or innocent in the appearance, you may end up dealing with symptoms and not the real issue that operates underneath. You may think it is a smoke of a dying fire and yet it is a volcano boiling underneath and it’s about to erupt. Many people you will hear them say I never saw it coming, nope it’s a lie, you saw but you ignored the signs. There can never be smoke without fire, when you see smoke there’s fire. When you see a tip there’s a big iceberg beneath that’s ready and able to shatter your boat into pieces. Every time you deal with people or an issue remember the iceberg principle.
Second be conscious of your own biasness. You may think all apples are square, but in reality they are not. Who we are affects how we see life, people, situations and issues, Sometimes you may think what you are looking at is a problem, but the reality is this you are the problem. You will work hard to solve an issue or a problem which does not exist. Sometimes it’s we who need the fixing. Plato said “know thyself”
I think it’s the late Steve Jobs who said when you are a hammer you think every problem is a nail. When you come to the realization that you could be biased on your interpretation of certain facts, it is the beginning of wisdom. It is a cure to the eye of your mind.
Your education, exposure, culture, past experiences, personality, values, gender and even age may color all that you see, with certain types of colors. This affects how you respond, relate and resolve issues. Be open minded is important every time you are faced with a challenge. Learn to observe, learn to ask questions, be curious not judgmental, it’s true you may have seen something, heard something but do you know the why behind what you saw?
Always remember the nature of things and people and your own personality affects your perception, actions and the judgment of issues, situation and people. Be warned about this and you will make a better person that people will consider wise and understanding. These are rear qualities.
Personally I had an experience (a dark chapter) in 2017 that taught me a lot of this principle, I made a promise to name one of my children Iceberg, and surely 2021 came, I had a child, and that child is called Iceberg.
Thank you for taking time to read this post.
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