The word ‘Vision’ has a number of interpretations relative to your opinion, but the predominant theme which they have in common is seeing or sight. Obviously, due to the number of opticians who use the word as part of their title or in their promotional information, many people will instinctively relate the word to being able to see, and generally speaking the most obvious meaning is literally that – how the eye takes in and interprets what is around it so that we can observe what is there and deal with it accordingly.
Getting further into the world of opticians and ophthalmologists, ‘vision’ can also be used to describe how the eye operates – the whole complicated process that occurs between a number of shades of light hitting the front of our eye, followed by the inner eye and optic nerves translating it and then sending the information to our brains – all the mechanics behind just being able to identify what we see in terms that we comprehend. So some of those experts offering eye tests, prescription lenses and Laser eye surgery have embraced the word to make it clear to the public that they are dealing with sight and in which ways their various prescriptions for glasses, surgery and Laser eye treatment can help the patient.
Sometimes the word can be utilised in a less specific fashion. Regardless of whether we believe them, we have all heard stories of those generally devotedly religious adherents who claim to have seen inspirational visions involving icons of their faith. No matter how unlikely these may seem to others, those who believe in such visions can often treat them as landmark moments in time. And this is how ‘vision’ takes on a less specific meaning. Obviously we can all understand whether we can see well or not, and we can mostly understand that the eye itself is a elaborate piece of the body which has a scientific explanation for how it works, nobody else can either confirm or disprove the fact that someone has had a spiritual vision as it is outside the sphere of our own reason and understanding, and no amount of medical intervention or Laser eye treatments can enable us to see what they have seen.
An alternate example of this type of vision (though not necessarily such a spiritual one on a number of occasions) is the ‘hallucination’ which, broadly speaking, is seeing or perceiving something whilst awake without there being any stimulus to prompt this. Or basically, seeing and hearing things which don’t really exist. Hallucinations are often caused by disorders of the brain or excessive use of drugs or alcohol. Probably due to this fact, they seem to attract an excessive amount of misleading press, although, the truth is, anyone can experience a hallucination and suffer no ill consequences afterwards.
The very concept of having a vision (mostly of the spiritual and uplifting type) has led to a number of musicians and bands writing songs using the words Vision or Visions in the titles, or utilising the word in the names of their albums. I know there are numerous examples to be discovered, but think about how the word is used in these album titles: Foreigner’s ‘Double Vision’, Michael Jackson’s ‘Vision’. Iron Maiden’s ‘Visions Of The Beast’ and Stevie Nicks’ ‘Crystal Visions’. I’d propose that all four use the word with a slightly different spin on it, but ultimately all of them believe that you will ‘see’ something if you listen to the music – an interesting concept in itself!
And then, there is the business jargon abuse of the word. The ‘Vision Statement’, the ‘Vision For The Future’ – all those bullet point phrases dreamed up by management to encourage ‘the team’ to get on board with their projects for the company’s future. How much you believe the hype will depend on how much you believe in the management. Used in an encouraging way in the right group, motivational buzz words and phrases can have a massive positive effect on performance, but only if employees already have a high regard for and believe in the business and what it hopes to achieve. A few of my previous employers would have done well to remember this vital fact, instead of thinking that a list of unattainable bullet points would have had as positive an effect on their employee’s enthusiasm for work as Laser eye surgery would have had on the same worker’s eyesight!
No comments:
Post a Comment