Nephi prophesies that the seed of his people will one day become a pure and delightsome people “and their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes;” (2 Nephi 30:6)
One definition for scale in the The Webster’s 1828 Dictionary says this:
Scale, verb intransitive, To separate and come off in thin layers or lamins.
http://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/scale
You can see through a tinted window because it is transparent enough for a sufficient amount of light to pass through. But if you stacked another tinted window in front of it, and another, and another, and another, how long would it be before all you saw was blackness?
I have though of this in terms of how we can allow social media and the gossip merchants we call the “news” laminate our view of the world on a daily basis with layers and layers of darkness and distortion.
When those scales of darkness accumulate sufficiently enough we are seeing reality through a marred, or obstructed lens.
The real question is why we allow it? Do we think that going back again and again to have our vision obscured is doing anything to help us become more informed or to see clearly?
How do we stay informed without being on the receiving end of propaganda or information meant not to inform but to radicalize and enflame?
In two other articles The Lens Through Which We See and Visualizing the Sources of Ideas, the importance of having a true view of reality is emphasized.
Just like a vehicle windshield can be obscured with bug guts, debris, minerals, etc, and needs to be regularly washed or given the once over with the windshield wipers, our own vision needs to be cleansed.
We can actually avoid a lot of this by not metaphorically ‘driving through the mud’ by constantly turning to news and social media and allowing them to splatter our psyche with their darkness.
In this age of information, not all information is valuable, not all information is helpful, and not all information is worth our attention.
The Mind of God, his views, his perspectives, his understanding must be as accessible to us as possible to regularly cleanse our minds from the scales of darkness that coat our consciousness every day, layer by layer.
Fortunately, we have a powerful cleansing agent at hand. By opening ourselves to the scriptures, quiet moments to ponder, and keeping an open dialogue with God, we can strip scales of darkness from our vision and see clearly.
The answers to the most difficult problems in this world can be obtained for free, without funding, programs, or hashtags.
Everyone wants to change the world, but that change begins with us. We cannot help the world see clearly if our own vision is compromised.
Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
Matthew 7:3-5 NASB
