OOPS!

Some years ago a new Interstate loop was added to the highway system where I lived.  The first time I drove on it, I saw a sign beside the highway that said, "This Lane Does Not Exist."

"What?"  What do they mean, "This Lane Does Not Exist"?  It does exist.  I am driving in it.

Each time I drove that highway, I had an argument with the sign makers.  I kept telling myself and which ever ghost was riding with me in the car at the time, "I know the lane exists. I am driving in it.  I just don't understand."

One day, after the highway had been opened for a couple of years, I drove the route and the sign said, "This Lane Does Not Exit."  Really, that is what it said.  The lane does not exit.  "When did they change the sign?"   

Well, I doubt that they changed the sign. I think I changed my glasses.  Somehow my first impression, which was wrong, got stuck in my mind. I looked hard at the sign every time I passed it and never saw the absence of the "S". I was so convinced that it said, "This Lane Does Not Exist" that I couldn't see what it really said.

I wonder how many other wrong perceptions I get stuck on? I wonder how many first impressions I have that do not really represent reality? 

I don't know, but I have been thinking about it lately. I guess sometimes it is important to "unlearn" what we "know" so we can discover what is real.