Over Familiarity
I've been thinking about familiarity.
The more I am familiar with some physical object, the less I see it as what it is, but more of what it is conceptually in my mind.
For as much time as I've spent in my room or lived in the same house, I fail to "see" it as a physical structure around me, so to speak. Navigating my home isn’t a matter of seeing the walls and walking around them: It’s a matter of going down the paths that I know exist.
I am so used to these walls that I feel like I don't see them in the same way that I can forget the feeling of the clothes that I am wearing or the glasses upon my face.
I know my home like the back of my hand, but when was the last time that I’ve gone out of my way to look at the back of my hand? I know it’s always there, so I never really need to observe it.
So many details are abstracted away until I only see the bare essentials in my mind.