Reality Check

One of the famous military mantras is "Perception is reality". I think that's a load of crap. Take today for example:
I was on the cordon for General Jumper's retirement ceremony, one of the Captains in my unit was to my left and apparently was staring at me the entire time we were out there. Afterwards he pulled me aside and told me that I had my eyes shut too much during the job. It gave the perception that I was asleep. I'm sorry - I percieved a fiery ball in the sky that some might call the sun shining in my eyes, so oddly enough I shut them! Weird. Don't get me wrong - I'm all for standing tight on the job and looking my best, but when its the choice between making the squinty bitter beer face, or casting my eyes downward and having a blank look on my face...I'm gonna go for the latter.

BUT
That's not the only reason I think that saying is a load of crap and a cop out. NCO's usually say it when they confront someone with a problem and instead of backing off and saying "My bad, I didn't know that was the situation", they like to make you feel like a jackass, by blaming you for giving the perception that _____was happening. That's crap. Grow a pair, man up, you were wrong and jumped to an inaccurate conclusion.

We all know the saying about ASSUMING (assume)...It makes an ass out of u and me. I like this saying much better.
A friend of mine came up with a variation for the one about perception, that I think is very adept. "Perception is the ignorant man's reality." When it boils down to it, people will see what they want to see, but that doesn't make it reality. If it were then I would percieve myself into being a millionaire!