Believing My Eyes
Mushrooms in my neighbor’s yard. Not pictured: gnomes, wood sprites, Mario
Last week, I spied a magnificent cluster of Amanita muscari mushrooms under a neighbor's front hedge. I've only ever seen a single, tattered specimen so the spectacle of an entire colony felt like stumbling into fairyland. It took five seconds of slack-jawed staring to convince me they were real.
My mushroom encounter brought to mind an exchange I had last month in Spain with my son, Sam.
We had just arrived. The airport taxi dropped us off near our rental apartment in the Albaicin, Granada's old Moorish quarter. As we noisily wheeled our suitcases down a pebble-paved street, Sam looked around and wondered aloud, "is this real?"
He's dazzled by the beauty of this place, I thought, but then he elaborated:
"Did this area originally look like this or was it fixed up for tourists?"
I turned to face him, expecting his winking sense of humor, but I noticed a faint shadow of skepticism. He literally didn't believe his eyes!
To be fair, Sam spent more of his childhood in the make-believe villages of amusement parks than old-world Europe. At first glance the Albaicin does look unreal, like a quaint movie set.
I assured him it was all real and he stood there for a moment, legitimately wowed, and then we laughed and kept walking. I didn't think any more of it.
A doorway in the Albaicin, Granada, Spain
That exchange drifted back to me as I thought about my Amanita sighting.
This time I was the one who couldn't believe my eyes.
Sam and I were so quick to doubt what we saw! Or perhaps I should say: we were slow to trust the beauty right there in front of us.
Authenticity isn't a given when you live in a world Instagram-enhanced photos, automated voicemail bots and AI-generated video. Questioning reality becomes so automatic you might not even notice you're doing it.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Critical thinking includes healthy skepticism, and in today's distorted information environment we need all the critical thinking we can get.
Is this real? might be the smartest question anyone could ask. At the same time, we risk losing something when doubt becomes our default.
We need regular reminders that beauty is just as real as everything else. You don't have to travel to Spain for the evidence. It might be growing a couple blocks from your house. 🍄✨
