Perspective

By definition; a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view.

"most guidebook history is written from the editor's perspective"

 synonyms: outlook, view, viewpoint, point of view, POV, standpoint, position, stand, stance, angle, slant, attitude, frame of mind, frame of reference, approach, way of looking, interpretation

"her perspective on things  had changed"

Awakening around 3 a.m.,  this came to mind. PERSPECTIVE. How does this affect our daily thinking and processing of people, places, events.?

Our viewpoints vary depending on a multitude of things such as experience, upbringing, friends, family, positive and negative memories.

In this process, I’d like to examine the effects on our perception…(the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.

"the normal limits to human perception, limits we set or are taught"

Let’s begin with something easy, let’s say sports… football.

Immediately your mind will focus on a couple things depending on yoAre you a ‘fan’? Are you a player, “x-player”? Do you like the sport? Hate it? Do you care? What’s your level of interest? Depending on these answers, we start down the road. If you’re a fan from Ohio and we’re discussing Ohio State, conditions are quickly set up. A ‘fan’ will have strong opinions or exhibit their level by having gear (jersey, Buckeye stuff, a window sticker, college flag on your house or in apartment), you’ll schedule things and activities around ‘the game’. You hate Michigan and make jokes about them. You have a whole set of memories (some fuzzy) about past big games, both winning and losing.Then there are those who have a little interest in the games, have enough interest to have an opinion about how the team is doing and will watch as a favorite among other choices because you have some type of connection (friends, relatives, or you live in the same state). There are those that would watch a game because everyone else is and cheer for your team because you’re in the same room. There are those that could care less and say they’re happy when OSU is ahead and sorry (for you) if they are losing. Some have zero interest. 

This process continues onto the other side into the negative. It moves from thought to action. In thought, they actually don’t like the team, or the sport for that matter, but enjoy the social aspect of being in the group setting and will tolerate the behavior around them. At the action side of this is the ones who simply don’t like the game, the team, or behavior at all and won’t attend a ‘football party’ because they actually don’t like anything about it, so they act on those feelings and don’t come.

This thought and action model is perspective. Let’s do another. Let’s look at tatoo’s. Mentally, when you see a tattooed individual, your mind may  make a snap decision on the persons character or background,  look at the artwork and look for a meaning,  wonder if there’s some statement, or stance the person is trying to make,  glance at the ink and go on. In some cases, on the positive side,  you may engage the person and comment or inquire about the art (an action).  You may smile and acknowledge how nice it is (thoughts). You might look, ignore, and move on (zero care or impact). To the negative, your thoughts may turn judgmental. You may consider questions like, “why would they do that to themselves?” “Don’t they know how that will look later”, or “I wonder what others they have and where?” You may lower your image of the person’s lifestyle and ponder they’re character. In action, you may want limited or zero contact with them, not do business with them, or have no trust in them. If  this a service or sales person, this attitude may limit buying from them or tipping them.

You can put a situation or a venue into this equation about a multitude of things like music, business, relationships, family/friends, personal activities, etc. In music, for example, this swings wildly from generation to generation, and from taste, behavior, and lyrics (intentional thought provoking for a purpose/cause to whimsical nonsense) of the music. It narrows the field and attracts large sectors of the market. It solidifies as well as divides. For me, at my age, old classic rock (Zepplin), folk music from the late 60’s (Crosby, Stills, Nash), Electronic (YES, Pink Floyd, ELO, ELP) hard 70’s, 80’s, and newer stuff (Metallica, etc). I enjoy pure classical with energy (Bach, Holst). I’ll listen to some because of memories, I’ll act out playing drums and guitar (action) or dance around the basement, I’ll also change the station on some music. For me, negative action comes with Rapp. I don’t like most of the lyrics, I don’t like the overdone base and sub-base, most of the lyrics I’ve focused on are racist, sexist, and anti-police. They glorify abusing women, illegal activity, and drugs and generally seem to point to disrupting, what I would consider, social norms. Am I opinionated… yes. But I’m working on it. Does this mean people who listen and enjoy rapp music are bad, misinformed, non-caring, and low class? No. Do I look at these people with a judgmental eye? Yes, I have in the past,  and for a brief moment (I’m still working on it, along with that tattoo thing.)  I will see, at this time, I have met some very cool, Godly rapp musicians who have greatly altered my judgmental attitude... praise be to God.

To put my thoughts into a cohesive, simple graphic. Consider the simple yet expanding idea below. It allows us to inspect our perception of our world and the interactions we display on a daily basis. An interaction initiates a mental and sometimes physical response.

Positive action <= Positive thought <= No response or action  => negative thought => negative action

These are the things of perspective. There are a couple of things that truly get away from us. One of those things is TIME. Time is God’s gift to mankind. It can be fleeting or can seem like an eternity. Ever hear that? An interesting exercise; Consider time when thinking of:

School – Elementary-High School – Looking back, ever want to be bigger? To grow up? Old enough to drive? Get out and graduate? When you were older, ever want a do-over?

College – Ever wonder that there wasn’t enough time to get things done? How do they expect you to juggle the course load, get all the assignments done and reviewed, is there a conspiracy about every course giving out projects at the same time with similar deadlines? And about those other activities regarding collegiate sports, music, or affiliations?

Work – Run, run, run. Never seems to be enough time. One job, two, perhaps a third. Responsibilities to be on time, expected to fill in, to be a little early, stay a little late, pull a double. How will all that affect your other parts of life. Family, friends, pets, activities? There is MORE to life, yes?

Time: It’s all perspective and perception. It’s all about focus and where we place importance’s. It’s how we categorize and prioritize.

Time is relative. Look at how we view our past, present, and future.

Primary school seemed like an eternity. College similarly… Until we look back with perspective. The longer it was ago, the quicker it seems to have happened.

Looking at the clock while at work can seem like it’s standing still if it’s not busy. An hour to go… oh my goodness. This is going to be a long hour. 

An hour in a good movie is so quick. What do you mean it’s over? It could have lasted twice or three times as long. 

3 minutes on a wrestling mat is a long time. Waiting 1 ½ hours for a 45 second roller coaster ride wasn’t that bad.

Sex… a solid, intense 5 minutes or intermittent hour and half… it’s all relative. 

Orgasm(s)… lasts seconds, but seems like a long time, sometimes. 

Relationships- can seem like an eternity in both directions. Some can’t believe it’s lasted this long while other couples seem like they met yesterday… after 20 years. Family and children offer mile posts to mark our progression. Children go through, in various situations, the same social and responsible situations we all have. Situations, decisions made, perceptions molded. For the goods and bads, we learn, we adapt, we decide, we judge. We find what works for us and what doesn’t. We gauge how our decisions will affect our situation and, how expensive it will be on time spent, either invested or wasted.

When God comes into your life, perception will necessarily change. Your caring shifts. The weight you put on time changes. Serving and sharing your time and resources becomes more of a forethought than an afterthought. Your mental pathways shift to a very positive degree. There is definitely less stress because the load is shared.

I present these ideas only because my search and experience in my 29 years of marriage, in church, in conversations with God, with good friends, and in my attempt at understand Jesus’s teachings, has brought me to a place where introspection (the examination or observation of one's own mental and emotional processes) has clarified some of my decision making results. I find myself working on and slowing down quick judgements. I try not to think negatively of the idiot that cut me off in traffic (they may be rushing for a good reason), of the tattooed rider in my Uber ride. (after asking her about the wings stretched across her chest up to both collarbones, she explained that it was for her nephew who had been in a coma for several months and was now healthy. The wings remind her that life is not guaranteed. Her response to my question about her other tattoos was, “young stupidity”. She regretted them.) 

Trying to think like Jesus, not be judgmental, be considerate, look with a loving eye, have empathy, and keep priorities squarely in mind is a daily task. Adjusting perceptions from past experiences is daily, if not hourly work for me. Looking back at past decisions, hoping to change my initial perception to a more enlightened one, is a task, but one with better and more positive effects on altering my perspective view. I now look and see lessons from my past. I simply didn’t comprehend (or want to see) that they were necessary to strengthen and prepare me for later opportunities and obstacles/trials/stresses that face us all.  And, NO,  nobody mentinoed these issues at the time.

I write this as much for myself (if not more) than I do others that face negativity in their lives. Negativity breeds frustration, anger, depression, despair, doubt, self-pity, and a whole life-style of looking to their world thru a terrible jaded prism or crappy glasses. In this mental state, the worst decsisions are made, the most hateful things are said, and the most terrible conditions are welcomed into your situation.

Those who know me know that I am not overtly PC.* I have a not-so-PC statement that says, “so people suffer from bowel-optic vision. It’s a condition where the optic nerve is attached to the anus, so everything you see in your worlds looks crappy (other terms my be substituted here). 

Christ’s lessons throughout his conversations in the Bible puts things in perspective. He gives us a view of living “in” this world, but not being “of” this world. Time is a gift. Time, if treated with the respect of a gift, allows us to interact in our world with aiding and helping others, to be of service, to light up others path which may be wondering or living in darker places. It allows us to show the light of the spiritual world into this one. We can be a beacon to point in the direction of safety, security, of a solid foundation where those in darkness can find refuge and rest. This all begins with our own perspective on gauging and judging each situation we find ourselves in daily.  It’s work, but it’s all good.

* PC by most accounts means "Pretty Clueless".