It's All About Perspective!

Oftentimes, we find ourselves getting angry because of what another person might think or say about something. I have found that this is all because of perspective. What you see in something may be completely different than what I see in the same thing.

One time, I heard a story that I thought was pretty cool and taught a lesson. I think it was actually told in a poem, but anyway it was about six men who went to see an elephant. They each felt a part of the elephant and thought that they knew exactly what an elephant was. One of them felt the Elephant’s leg and they thought that the elephant was something large and tall like a tree, one of them felt the elephant's tail and thought that it was like a rope, one touched the side of the elephant and thought it was a wall, one felt its tusk and determined that elephant was exactly like a spear, one felt the elephant’s ear and thought that the elephant was similar to a fan, and yet another felt the elephant’s tusk and thought that it was like a snake. The lesson that I got from the story was that, while each man described the elephant as being differently from the nest, they all described something that was partially true. None of them was really right, while none of them was definitively wrong. I think that this is very profound. As people we all have different views, angles, and perspectives about things in life. And, just to be clear, I am not really talking about religion, I am talking about other things.

When you look at things, almost everything can change drastically when you change how you look at it and view it. Take an “out” door for example. You usually use the outdoor when you are walking out of a building, but if you think about it, you could also be walking out of the outside. Also, when you are speaking about what direction something is in, and you use left and right to describe, they are all based off of one person, and thus differ based on your perspective. What is on your left may be on my right. 

This is also true for life. Depending on how we look at an issue, we may think of solutions that are completely different, or we might just view the issue completely different. Does this mean one of us is wrong? Of course it doesn’t. In the US, we hear of the bickering of the left and the right. Is either side wrong? Not really, they just have different views. 

I would contest that it is these differences that make us, as people, better. The differences between the political parties help to keep us in balance. Not one party has too much power over the other and it keeps our country in check. So, instead of being frustrated over other people’s views, we should be glad that they have them, because, to be blunt, it would suck if everyone had the same exact views. Differences make us all better!