In this world we're misled to think that a lot of things that mean things don't mean anything.  I had another theory before, and I wrote it down in one of my blogs, and it may even be *partially* true, but right now I'm having another theory.. *EVERYTHING* in this world is *exactly..precisely* what it seems to be on the outside, except that there's things we do to them to make them seem otherwise.

Makeup, clothes, hair dye, paint, artificially constructed entities (they cater to other purposes than directly expressing oneself.. and even art has malice), advertizements, school books..

Books are different from school books for two reasons.  1) school books change the game on how your mind plays with reality.  2) school books are given early on and they may have pictures, so that's early imagery.  honestly, the fact that they're given early on is enough.

so, once having been taught to believe that appearance is always, or usually, or *predominately* superficial, we learn to ignore a lot of truth..

it's not that appearances are incidental, but mainly that people manipulate them.  secondarily that people lie overtly.

i would suggest trying to pay attention to nature, as a solution, and then in the meantime seeing "through" what you can and when you have even more spare time trying to see the gaps in-between..

What I would personally do is slightly more specific.