I'm sure you've been part of a situation where two people have vastly different reactions to the same set of circumstances. These situations illustrate what I often refer to as "The Power of Perspective".

The interesting thing about perspective is that it doesn't require there to be a "right" or a "wrong". However, if you think of most times that two people have differing perspectives - often each person feels that they have "the right perspective". Humans are funny that way, aren't we?

To illustrate, let me give you an interesting example:

This past Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday it rained in my part of the world. All of the people on my side of the street were quite happy about that. All of the people on the other side of the street were unhappy about it.

How can that be? How is it that people who live on the same street could have completely opposite perspectives to a given situation that affected both?

Why the different perspectives?

We live in a new development and all of the houses on my side of the street got new sod on Monday morning. We were delighted to finally have grass! When it rained on three or the remaining days of the week we were so happy because we didn't need to water our new lawns!

Our neighbors on the other side of the street were scheduled to get their new sod on Tuesday, but since it rained on Tuesday, Wednesday and again on Friday, the conditions were too muddy for the workers. This means that people on that side of the street will have to wait another week to get grass.

Same situation. Different perspectives. No right or wrong.

This week, I want you to keep an open mind and if you find yourself judging someone else, just remember that they could simply be looking at the situation from a different perspective.

ENJOY NOW!

People have collective stories which are mental perspectives and mental positions. Of course, when they explain it to you, it sounds absolutely right. Then you go to the other story, and they explain it to you, and that sounds absolutely right. Both are so entrenched in their narrative, their mental positions and their identifications with mental positions that they cannot see anything else. That really symbolizes the very thing that lies at the core of human dysfunction.

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National Library of Canada ISSN 1708-0606

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