What might this be?

Back in September of 2005, I posted a diary entitled "Life lessons from an optical illusions web site". I described how a favorite ice breaker activity of mine at the beginning of a new Intro to Psychology class is to visit a web site full of optical illusions (sadly it has become riddled with pop-ups and annoying eye-grabbing ads, so click at your own risk). I especially like to focus on the images that can be seen two different way, like this one:

...because then we can discuss how sometimes people look at the same thing and see it differently, but that doesn't mean that one of them is wrong. They can *both* be right, and they can help each other see what it looks like from their perspective.

Of course, even if we don't try to get all deep about it, I just find this whole area fascinating. Have any two people look at clouds or at inkblots

and they will see very different things. When I was in grad school in psychology, we learned how to administer the Rorshach. Actually scoring it was much more complicated than I would have imagined, and I never quite got the hang of that. Of course at this point, that class is something like 15 years ago or so, and the only thing I remember clearly is part o the procedure for test administration. You would hand the person a card with an inkblot on it (we had to buy our own, and *dang* those things were expensive) and ask, "What might this be?"

When we look at pictures or images, especially ambiguous ones like inkblots or clouds, we often we see things we want or expect to see, or things we are particularly fond of. When Son in Ohio was really, really, really into the alphabet several years ago, the whole world was his "find the hidden letter" game.

Here's a new graphic Demetrius created a few days ago. What might this be? I can see it a few different ways. Maybe it's just a pretty picture of a peach on a tree. Or, it could make me feel hopeful, because spring is finally coming. Or it could be symbolic of all of our hard efforts finally "bearing fruit" in the 2006 elections.

Or maybe, something else...

Update: Just FYI, I've added the image to clothing items at Cafe Press. Clicking the image above takes you to a stamp featuring the same graphic.

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