This picture appeared in my social media feed the other day.
The thread below it was really really interesting. There were many suggestions as to what the differences were. Some of the theories were
- the grandfather and little boy were dead because neither of them had plates and the grandfather had no chair
- the mother, father and grandfather were alcoholics because they had red noses
- the little boy was abused because he had a mark on his cheek and no plate
- the little boy and the grandfather died in an accident (mark on boy’s cheek, no plate in front of grandfather or boy, grandfather was standing, grandfather looked ill)
- the two adult women were the father’s wife and his mistress
- all the plates and glasses were empty and there was no food or drink apart from the turkey, so something dark must be going on
It turns out that the differences were that the father had one round and one square lens in his glasses. The society we live in and our collective trauma means that we read something into every detail except the one that we should have.
Do you agree?
I reacted more to there only being a turkey, no veg or other food, grandpa and youngster not having plates and I missed the glasses. I didn’t go as far as saying the ones without plates were dead because that never crossed my mind, I went back to the picture to see the glasses and the difference is so slight it is easily missed. This says something about our current thinking when we miss something which should be obvious to notice the irrelevant.
I also caught the fact that the grandpa and the son didn’t have any plates but I didn’t go as far as thinking that they might be dead. I continued reading your article so I didn’t have time to elaborate on my thoughts. I wonder what type of people would have guessed about the glasses.
I am not sure I even noticed them on first reading. I reacted to the lack of plates. Strange, isn’t it?