The perspectives we have are distorting. They present only one side of an object, an issue or a situation.
That perspective might be zoomed in, in which case we have amazing detail, but lack the clarity of the big picture. Or our perspective might be from a distance, able to see all the context, but disconnected from the reality on the ground.
No matter which perspective we have, it’s not the whole truth. It’s a partial picture.
In many cases, the whole truth is either entirely unknowable or not entirely useful (or a combination of the two). But we don’t have to seek the whole truth in order to improve our understanding – we just need to broaden out perspectives.
And while zooming in and out can be helpful, it’s walking around an issue – to intentionally seek out the view from the other side – which is most illuminating. It’s possible to rotate in multiple dimensions around an issue and in doing so we can see things that just aren’t visible from our original perspective.
And as valuable as this is- it’s hard work. Maybe that’s the reason we don’t do it very often. It can be challenging to sit and listen to different perspectives, because if we do it honestly, it’s likely to change our own views.
And our views and opinions are precious to us. In some cases they define who we are. So if they change, we change. And change is always hard and often scary.
But the reality is that any contact with a different perspective, changes us. How can it not? We can’t un-see what we have seen. We can’t step into the same river twice.
A new perspective is not only a sure route to a new version of ourselves, but a version of ourselves with a richer understanding of the world.
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Where/when have your perspectives been tested, broken or most enlightened?
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