True Confession

Today I revealed a true confession in the "Welcome Wagon" section of the Community Forum and it felt good to get it out in the open after all this time. Doing so paved the way for me, to share my true confession openly now. I hope that fessing up will help others to unload something they are burdened with. Post your confession in the comment section...it will be our secret. I Promise!

"Magic Eye" True Confession

This morning I admitted that it took me years to be able to master Magic Eye. At first glance, the Magic Eye 3D stereogram looks like a big jumble of beautiful color.

If you bring the photo up close to your eyes and then slowly move it away, you should be able to see a picture develop as if by magic. Sounds simple enough right? Well maybe for most, but not in my case! Give it a whirl yourself here.

First introduced in my local Sunday newspaper in the early 1980's; everyone was Magic Eyeing. People were doing it in the privacy of their home, in bed and in the bathroom. Well-known people casually attempted it while waiting in line at the grocery store; soccer moms brazenly Magic-Eyed on the bleachers and hip people did it right out in the open at parties. The Magic Eye craze was in full gear and I could only pretend to be a part of this hot trend.

My First Time

Though painful to recount, I remember my first day with Magic Eye. I was enjoying a leisurely breakfast with my young daughters. They were chatting and I was reading various parts of the Sunday paper. Life was good...or so I thought.

My daughter noticed Magic Eye in the comic section, read the instructions and in two seconds, she was Magic Eyeing. My younger daughter grabbed the paper and she, too, saw the "awesome" giant bunny hidden in the photo. They were in elementary school for goodness sake!

"Try it Mom...it is waaaay cool," my girls said almost in unison. I was certainly into "waaaay cool," so I read the instructions myself and proceeded to try to get the "awesome" bunny to appear magically in the stereogram. Hmmm...I thought I saw what looked like Big Foot, but kept that to myself. The second time I tried, I was sure I saw something that vaguely resembled the Tasmanian devil and that rather worried me.

My daughters were staring at me, waiting for me to experience the same Magic-Eye excitement, they were tingling with, but I just could not bring the darn bunny into focus. Faking it, I shrieked that I could finally see the magnificent rabbit and let it go at that. It was a sad day indeed.

Magic Eye Sundays

My daughters looked forward to Magic Eyeing every Sunday morning. I went right along faking that I could see dump trucks, amazing birds, sand castles and elaborate Roman ruins in these 6x6 squares. When the girls were at school, I poured over old newspapers in my effort to learn the trick to this simple practice. I wanted to be among the cool mothers who hung out with their kids doing Magic Eye.

Sadly, I dreaded Magic Eye Sundays, but did my best at covering up my failure to see things that everyone else was seeing. I resigned myself to the fact that I would just have to keep up the façade; hoping no one discovered the dark secret I lived with on a daily basis, but more so on Sundays. I could not and probably never would; Magic Eye! Then...one day a miracle happened.

Divine Magic Eye Intervention

Grabbing the Sunday paper to Magic Eye, my daughter brought the paper up close to her eyes and then slowly pulled it back and looked dumbfounded. She did this two more times and finally in a hesitant manner she said, "I think it is Jesus."

My younger daughter snatched the paper out of her sister's hands and she, too, Magic-Eyed the stereogram several times. "Yep...it's Jesus," she said confidently. This was my chance I thought. Surely, the powers that be would not forsake me Magic Eyeing Jesus!

I leaned over the table and grabbed the paper from the little one. I put it close to my eyes and in a slow deliberate motion, I pulled it back away from my eyes and a face came into focus; then some long hair and what looked like a beard. I was shaking with excitement and yelling at the top of my lungs, "I see him alright and I see his features and I cannot even believe I can see him."

My daughters sat there looking at me as if I was a crazy woman, which by the way, they still affectionately call me. I continued to Magic Eye because, I was filled with the awe of my private accomplishment, but could not let on to them. I let my girls think it was simply, the excitement of seeing Jesus; not the excitement that my Magic Eye conundrum was over apparently.

The Secret (Better Than the Book)

However much I would love to say it was Jesus, who provided the miracle that day; I am afraid it was not. In reality, it was rock star Bob Seger in the stereogram. Bob Seger let me see the Magic Eye light that day and I have been eternally grateful to him ever since.