At First Sight - March 1 2023

 

At First Sight

March 1 2023

My first impression was incorrect.

They usually are.

But we are meaning-seeking animals,

impatient to make sense of things

and our brains happily comply.

So it takes an act

of intentional generosity

not to judge.

Although “impression”

may be the wrong word.

Because nothing is impressed on us,

there's no hot lead

poured into letters

and pressed into our heads.

It's closer to projection;

seeing in others

the bits of ourselves

we either like well enough

or disapprove.

And how indelible they are.

You only get

to make a first impression once,

and from then on

you're mostly stuck.

Like love at first sight.

How instantly

you fall into it;

perhaps just a glance

across a crowded room

when your eye caught hers.

And how incrementally

you tend to fall out;

until eventually

even a glimpse of the face

that you couldn't get enough of,

the face that made your heart pump hard

and pulse quicken,

just raises your blood pressure.

Not that first impressions can't be right;

those rare times

that leave you feeling

like a fine judge of people.

You learn to know them better, of course;

but, good or bad,

they're still that same person

   —  just more so.

And if there even is such a thing

as love at first sight,

what a first impression it must be.

When you've really found “the one”.

When you both fall,

surrendering to gravity.

When there's no disillusion.

No falling-out.

No doubt

from the very start.