The Nose on your Face

How many times have you walked into a shop, and made your way to the counter, searching the 'impulse buy' shelves surrounding it, before asking the lovely smiling face behind the counter 'Do you have any...?' Fill in the blank for whatever it is you were looking for, then chuckle with me as you remember being told that the thing you wanted was right in front of you.

Same goes for the video store: reluctant to ask for help, as many of us pride riddled humans are, you search for the film for ten minutes or so, then finally surrender and ask for assistance; only to then be shown that it was exactly where you were looking. Right there. As plain as the nose on your face.

If this has never happened to you, I offer hearty congratulations, but when it happened to me again recently, I was struck by how often we are blind to the bleeding obvious. It's very weird. The thing we want is often the hardest thing to locate. Consider your handbags ladies. Have you ever found the thing you wanted sitting right on top of that vast and eclectic collection contained therein?

When it comes to our faults, most of us find it even more difficult to see what is often conspicuous to others. Naturally, our personal character flaws, and especially any honest examination of them, are nowhere near as desirable as a Snickers, or Spectre on DVD, so our blindness in this case can mostly be attributed to a lack of willingness to see.

One final thought. Have you ever considered the irony of the expression 'as plain as the nose on your face'?