The sights we see

Most of us have had the frightening experience of looking down from high places, or into deep canyons and chasms, and finding that we seem somehow fearful—yet fascinated. Looking down into deep places may have its attractions, but it also has its hazards. Looking needlessly at negative and unwholesome sights and scenes also has its hazards. It has long been known that we tend to take on the character and color of the sights we see, of the thoughts we think, of the places we go, of the atmosphere in which we live our lives. And those who look too often, too intently at the negative and undesirable side must be in danger of becoming negative in their outlook on life. Impressionable young people who are seeing and reading and looking and listening to the wrong kind of stories, the wrong kind of pictures, the wrong kind of entertainment, are likely to find their thoughts too frequently following the unwholesome side. Sometimes young people step into the wrong places just to see the sights and, in doing so, fix unsavory images in their minds that they are likely to remember long after they wish they could forget. Young people away from home, sightseeing in sordid places, don’t come out unchanged, because every sight leaves its imprint and impression—the undesirable or the wholesome sight, whichever they see. There is every reason why we should not go out of our way to see sordid and unwholesome sights, unless profession or duty requires us to do so. For, as one forthright person said, “We can’t handle dirty things and keep our hands clean.”¹ Stay away from whatever you don’t want to have cling to you or become part of you. Even if it doesn’t touch you physically, it may touch you mentally and morally. Gazing at sordid scenes will certainly add sordid memories later to be called to mind. Unless there is a duty or an honest reason for doing so, we should not do or see that which would be unwholesome, sordid, and unwise from which to make our memories.