Looking - Not Seeing

A Red Straw is Hidden Here: Hint - Examine the Rod

     Recently we have had two scavenger hunts in our home.  One at our family Thanksgiving gathering and the other last night with our dinner party guests.   My wife, Nancy is an expert at setting up a challenging scavenger hunt that frustrates the best searchers and observers.   I didn't participate in the Thanksgiving hunt and simply enjoyed hearing the comments of the family members as they struggled to find the items essentially hidden in plain sight albeit in a camouflaged way.   Last night I tried my hand at finding a red straw, plastic spoon, cork, ruby ring, ribbon, rubber band, shoelace, beaded necklace and skewer in our living room area.   This is my home territory and one would think I could find them rather easily.   No way!!  To be honest, I could  only find one of the items on my own.   It is amazing how a person can look but not see things.  The guests we more successful than I was but no one was able to find all items.   It was an entertaining time for all of us and a great thing to do after having a delicious dinner that Nancy had prepared.   Good exercise and good for the digestion.

Recent Decorative Piece

    All this makes me wonder about how many elements we miss in life because they are camouflaged from us either by their location or our lack of focus.   Not only do we miss physical things by our lack of observation  but we also miss relational, social and political nuances.   I will confess often being so single minded about some things that I miss what is going on around me.   Is that also one of the things that identify a geezer?   Loss of the observant self?   Thank heavens that my wife is tolerant of my cluelessness.   Nancy occasionally adds some new item to our decor that I might notice weeks later.

   In closing to emphasize the challenge of the scavenger hunt, I challenge you to find the red straw in the photograph at the top of this blog.