You know about “matrixing” – a simpler word than the real term, which is “pareidolia”. Pareidolia is a phenomenon of a psychological origin, in which random patterns, either a sound or visual, is perceived as something else. It comes from two Greek words, one meaning “instead of” and the other meaning “image”. Look carefully and you see the word “idol”. Matrixing is seeing something in an image that isn’t there, or creating your own image out of what is there.
I remember when someone made headlines by posting on Facebook and social media a picture of a piece of toast that she claimed had the image of Jesus on it. It was one of those things that the more you looked at it, the more it did look like Jesus on the piece of toast. Human beings, being what they are, can never let anything alone. We couldn’t let Jesus have a few minutes of fame by having his face on a piece of toast, so someone had to go invent the perfect gift for this culture. It’s called a selfie toaster.
The toaster actually takes a picture of your face, and bakes it into your morning breakfast. It really is the perfect image, or metaphor, for this culture. People are breaking legs and ankles by tripping over things and falling down while taking pictures of themselves with their selfie’s sticks, why not stick your face on a piece of toast and eat it in the morning?
I have to admit that when I heard of the selfie toaster, I thought it was a joke. But it’s not. I can buy one on Amazon. There is something quite amazing about this if you think about it. The word coming from two Greek words that would be loosely translated “instead of the image” says all you need to know. God made mankind in his image. Human beings weren’t happy with that. They wanted to be like God, they sinned, and from that point on their children were born in their image. Every time we take a selfie and look at our picture we are looking at a human being that wants to be God. Left to our own devices, our idols, the puny gods we worship, all have our face.
We are toast. The pathetic cries for attention we see everyday from ISIS, to marchers in the streets; to lone shooters, and politicians taking selfies with the Pope we are watching cries for attention. “Look at me” is the mantra of this generation and toast might be a perfect picture of what we have become.
