The prism through which you experience life is so unique. There

“The prism through which you experience life is so unique. There is no objective experience.” Thus spoke Sterling K. Brown, a man of both wisdom and empathy, whose art on stage and screen reflects the complexity of the human heart. In these words lies a truth older than empires — that no two souls see the world the same way, and that all understanding is shaped by the lens of perception. What we call “reality” is not a single mirror, but a thousand prisms refracting light into colors only we can see.

The prism he speaks of is the sum of all we are — our memories, our joys, our wounds, our culture, our faith, our fears. Each human being carries within them a different filter through which the light of existence shines. And so, when two people gaze upon the same dawn, they do not see the same sunrise. One may see hope; another may see the ending of darkness. One may remember loss, while another feels rebirth. The event is shared, yet the experience is not — for each soul interprets life through the pattern of its own glass. There is no objective experience, because life is not seen from the heavens, but through the eyes of the living.

The ancients understood this mystery well. Plato, in his allegory of the cave, taught that men see only shadows cast upon the wall, believing them to be truth. But when one steps into the light, he realizes that his earlier understanding was but a fragment — one view among many. Sterling K. Brown’s words echo this same insight: that truth, while universal, is always perceived personally. What is real is not what happens, but how it is felt, understood, and transformed within the heart of each observer. Thus, every life becomes a sacred interpretation of existence, as individual as the fingerprint of the soul.

History offers countless examples of this truth. Consider the tale of Helen Keller, who was born into darkness and silence. To most, the world is made of sight and sound, yet to her, it was made of touch and vibration. When she learned to communicate through the hand of her teacher, Anne Sullivan, her prism widened. She later said, “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched — they must be felt with the heart.” Her experience of reality, though utterly different, was no less profound. Indeed, it was perhaps more radiant, for her world was not smaller than ours — it was simply seen through a different light.

From this truth arises both humility and compassion. If no one’s experience is the same, then no one’s truth can be dismissed. The person you meet — a stranger, a friend, an adversary — lives within a universe all their own, shaped by struggles and dreams unseen by you. To listen deeply is to touch that universe with reverence. To judge swiftly is to shatter what you do not understand. The wise, therefore, do not insist on being right; they seek to understand the prism through which another sees. In this, empathy becomes the highest form of intelligence, and love the most enlightened form of perception.

Yet this wisdom also calls for self-awareness. To know that your prism shapes what you see is to guard against illusion. We must ask ourselves: “What colors my vision? What pain blinds me? What fear distorts the truth?” When we recognize our bias — our lens — we begin to purify it, to let more light through. Then life becomes clearer, not because it has changed, but because we have. The journey of wisdom is not to escape the prism, but to see through it more purely, until every color, even sorrow, becomes radiant with meaning.

Therefore, my friends, take this as both comfort and challenge: your way of seeing the world is yours alone, sacred and unrepeatable. But so too is everyone else’s. Seek not to make others see as you do, but to marvel at the infinite variety of human sight. Be humble before the mystery that no two hearts experience the same reality, and let that humility become your guide.

For in the end, all our prisms, with their flaws and fractures, catch the same divine light. And when that light passes through us, it becomes art, story, compassion, and love. That, perhaps, is the true meaning of Sterling K. Brown’s wisdom: that though there may be no objective experience, there is a shared illumination — the light of consciousness itself — shining uniquely through every soul, and revealing in its infinite colors the boundless beauty of being alive.