what does the movie Abduction, "Magic Eye" posters, icebergs, and earthquakes have to do with me?

While in this state of 'extended hiatus from the working world' (aka unemployment) I have had plenty of time to gather my thoughts and relax for more hours of the day than I ever thought possible. Not only have I been thinking, but also reading and watching movies. Sometimes you find inspiration in the strangest places, where at first glance they seem completely unrelated but then make perfect sense. Tonight's inspiration was the movie Abduction. For those unfamiliar with the movie, it's basically about this high school kid Nathan (Taylor Lautner) who, through a seemingly benign sociology assignment on missing children, discovers that his family and history is not quite what he thought it was.

This movie not only reminded me of certain aspects that are relevant to my own life, but also to those annoyingly popular "Magic Eye" posters from the '90s. I always hated seeing one of these things because it immediately drew everyone into it, and everyone shouting 'oh i see it!!!' and me pretending to figure it out, but never actually being able to see the damn hidden picture. It wasn't the first time I was unable to see what was right in front of me, the only thing I needed to do was to look a little closer to see the deeper picture.

From the "magic eye" posters I think about how sometimes you can look at something or someone familiar, something you have seen hundreds of times before and just know that something is not quite the same, just the least bit different, but you just can't quite put your finger on it. Then, when someone tells you what it is (so you like my new haircut?) you see it and think to yourself 'how on earth did I miss that'?

Furthermore, it brings me to the expression "just the tip of the iceberg" and the fact that you never quite know what is going on just below the surface just by looking at what is most obvious.

Most people would probably think what this has to do with the movie  Abduction and even more so what it has to do with my life. Well, first I would say that's because they don't know me well enough, but then I would add more explanation, after adding one more example of thoughts that arise. I have never been in an earthquake (knock on wood) but I have seen enough of them on television to know what they are all about. The basics of it are that there are these plates under the surface that, when they bump against each other, cause the earth above to shake and break (not to be confused with the pork chop seasoning brand shake and bake). Those living above ground may not have even realized a fault line was just below them until an earthquake hit. Others that know about the fault line are never quite sure when another one will hit. In between the earthquakes, everything seems sturdy. Buildings stay standing and streets are smooth. But then the moment arrives, when everything starts to shake. In that moment, whether the person knows about the fault line or not, no one knows exactly what is going to happen. How long will it last? How much destruction will it cause? Will my house still be in one piece?

Secrets, at least from my experiences, are a lot like fault lines. Those that know the secrets, like those that know the fault lines lying below the surface, are just holding their breath from moment to moment waiting for the moment to come when the earth begins to shake and the fault line makes itself known. For the ones the secrets are being kept from, they are like the people that have no idea there was a fault line until the earthquake occurred. Regardless of whether you are the secret keeper or the one from whom the secret is kept, or the know-er of the fault line or the caught-by-surprise earthquake survivor, one thing is sure: no one is ever the same. A fault line, like a secret, once exposed can never be hidden again.

Where am I going with this? Well, there is a lot more to me than meets the eye. The fault line has been discovered, and can never be re-hidden, but there are still people close to the fault line that are oblivious to it's existence. Like the person who can't quite put their finger on the slight difference in the appearance of a familiar object, I myself have had the experience of feeling as if something, however small, just didn't feel "right". And, in the way that the person responds once hearing what that difference is, I was dumbfounded by the fact that the truth had been staring at me all along, I just never knew it. I never looked further into the picture, never asked what it was that made me different. What differences would have been made to my current situation or even my very personality had I know the fault line was there all along?