Well … what do you see here? Tell me in the comments. I’ll tell what I see later too. I found this at My Blue Puzzle Piece, but it’s a fairly common optical illusion. I like how the author of the site presents it though:

Have you ever been with other people while looking at one of those optical illusions? Have you ever been the one person who couldn’t see what everyone else sees? It’s frustrating! It’s easy to suspect they’re just playing a prank.

I particularly suspect they are playing a prank when someone hauls out one of these … Just stare at this for a while the instructions declare … so everyone does, including me.  So … just stare at this for a while.

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I could stare at that for the rest of my misbegotten days and nothing would happen.  Not one blessed thing.  The rest of you would chatter on about all the wonderful and cool things you saw.  Me.  Nothing.  It’s a prank.  Only, I know it’s not.  I know for certain that all of you saw something.  I wish I could.  I know that I have sucky eyes (astigmatism, near-sighted and who-knows-what-else and am legally blind without correction).  It could have something to do with all of that.  Or perhaps the way my abi-normal brain works (I do have a seizure disorder with an abnormal EEG).  Who knows?  It’s frustrating.  So when people haul out these party games out, I mostly just walk the other way and find something else to do.

I was thinking about this optical illusion quite a bit lately though.

Depending on whether you look more at the white space or the black space you can see either two facial profiles or one chalice.  I’ve been involved in several conversations in a variety of places this past week about women in church (that’s the Body of Christ worldwide, not necessarily any particular church).  I like this illusion because it’s a good visual for me (just me) about how I feel about women in church.  I’m pretty committed to the idea that it takes balanced participation from both men and women to present a holistic picture of God to the world.  So I like this visual because there are two equal profiles and one chalice … to me the chalice represents the wine or Blood of Christ poured out for us.  And this is an easy illusion to see through.  Most people can “get it.”  They can see both sides easily.  I like that.  It’s helpful in pushing the envelope to opening up the other side.

In my conversations I’ve thinking about what the contribution of women might be and how women can fit in.  I’ve been asking, of myself and others, what does this look like?  How can women fit into the picture?  Yesterday, I realized that I had been making some assumptions about the painting that had been all askew.  Look again at the illusion above.  You’ll see some very wonderful symmetry there.  The two profiles match exactly.  It’s makes a great visual … but it suddenly occurred to me that trying to find that same symmetry in real life was not terribly effective.  I had that thought as a result of reading the following on GodSpace, the blog of Christine Sine:

It reminded me of a book I read many years ago written in 1970s by Swiss psychiatrist Paul Tournier called The Gift of Feeling, in which he reflects on what the world would look like if women found their true place.  At one point he comments “If women dared to be themselves, to realize their special mission and if their influence increased, would our society become more humane?”
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Father Dear writes in his article:

“Women are the peacemakers. The world will not achieve peace without the energy and the work of women.” So writes Dolores Huerta of the United Farmworkers. Gandhi said the same thing in 1947: “Women are the natural messengers of the gospel of nonviolence, if only they will realize their high estate…. It is for American women to show what power women can be in the world. You can become a power for peace by refusing to be carried away by the flood-tide of the pseudo-science glorifying self-indulgence that is engulfing the West today and apply your minds instead to the science of nonviolence…. If nonviolence is the law of our being, the future is with women.”

“It” is an article by Father Dear in The National Catholic Reporter to which Christine links. And, I must confess, I’ve really given you most of Christine’s post.  Because it’s good.  I must also recommend the article in the NCReport by Father John Dear.  It’s also a must read. Discover the power of clomid forms! Are you struggling with fertility issues? Don’t lose hope! Introducing the game-changing clomid forms that are designed to support your journey towards parenthood.

As I reflect on both and my conversations that I have been involved in, I continue in my commitment to the having space for women in the picture of God.  For having a full profile for women as well as men in that optical illusion as it were.  But I’m beginning to understand that my understanding and perspective on symmetry may need to be adjusted as I wander down the path.