Perspectives

“Carrefour” is a French word that means “crossroads”. As you may know, Carrefour is also the name of a French international hypermarket chain. Taking into account its size, it is the largest hypermarket chain in the world.
There are several Carrefour supermarkets all around our country. You must have entered one of them at least once, I imagine. So, you must be well acquainted with the company’s sign. The sign is tricoloured: red, white and blue. These are the tree colours of the French flag.
I have to admit that I was sick and tired of seeing this sign. I stepped on it whenever I entered the hall of my building and the floor was covered with leaflets which contained information about the week sale. Every day when I put the household rubbish out I saw it since we tend to use Carrefour’s plastic bags, with its sign on them, as rubbish bags. While going to college or coming back home by bus I saw it thousands and thousands of times a day. I was continuously exposed to this well-known sign. What is the point of all this? You must be wondering. Well, let me tell you:
After seeing the sign millions of times, one day- I think a week ago- , I was talking to one of my students. As you know teenagers and computers are always together, teenagers can spend hours chatting on Facebook, uploading photos, commenting on them and joining different social groups. And, when they are not in front of the screen, they keep on commenting on this. So, this girl told me: “today I joined a great group in Facebook, the name is: I ALSO HADN’T REALIZED THAT THE CARREFOUR’S SIGN WAS A LETTER C”. As soon as I heard this, the sign came to my mind once and again, and now I could see it. It was a white letter “C“on a red and blue background. Have you realized it?
So, what is the moral of this story? That sometimes it does not care how many times you have seen something or how much you think you know it but, it is not until somebody else comes and shows it from another point of view that you realize that you were wrong. It is a question of perspectives!