DADS READ: "They All Saw A Cat" by Brendan Wenzel: exploring the differences between perception and reality

What I love about "They All Saw A Cat" - by Brendan Wenzel, is that it beautifully captures the concept of "perception".  What we perceive with our senses, mind, preconceived bias, and background might not be "reality", the way that others perceive us with their senses, mind, preconceived bias, and backgrounds might not be what we "perceive" to be an accurate portrait of ourselves.  Finally, is there such a thing as objective reality, or is everything just a mixture of perceptions, cultural constructs, and past experiences.  The book begins with the "cat" walking through the world "with its whiskers, ears, and paws".

The "cat" may have its own internal experiences based on its internal perceptions, but we are left to experience the "cat" through the eyes and perception of a child:

Through a blury-eyed "fishbowl parallax": 

Through the frightened eyes of a mouse:

Through an ultraviolet enhanced light spectrum:

As a tiny passenger flea:

And more, but you'll need to track the book down to see the rest.  

I love this book, because as time goes on I realize how much "perception" affects reality.  How different people from different circumstances/roles can see the same event in entirely different ways.  One way this recently manifested for me these last few years, was listening to a two-part 'This American Life" series on police brutality.  Things look a lot differently to a person that is put in dangerous circumstances on a regular basis, race can change the way they see things, the time of day can change the way they see things, prior training can change the way they see things, prior experience can change the way they see things, and I realized I didn't realize there were so many different perspectives to consider.  I highly recommend the series: "Cops See It Differently: Part One" and "Cops See It Differently: Part Two".

This started out being about a "cat" and ended with police brutality, but perceptions have consequences, and the sooner we realize that we are all navigating life in a sea of conflicting perceptions the sooner we can develop enough empathy to save humanity.