Perspective

The older I get the more I realize how important perspective is in the scheme of things. I am certain my dad tried to explain this to me in many ways but it never sunk in beyond the first layer of my understanding. Understanding is like an onion, multi-layered and infinitely complex. It takes time and to pierce the heavier layers near where we actually experience life. If you throw a pebble into a pond the waves of reaction go outward until they contact another object or stronger waves of reaction coming from another direction. We are both the pebble and the object affected by the reaction hundreds of times each day. It's little wonder that we are so constantly evolving. When I was young my actions were so strong and overwhelming that I barely noticed most other waves or had the cognizance to see the results of my own.

Being the center of my own universe had its advantages but it also severely limited the ability to gain perspective. I wouldn't describe this as self-centered but rather action centered. In other words I acted more often than I reacted; I was the pebble more often than the resulting wave. Many things changed to alter my reality, but probably the most important and far reaching change was the birth of my daughter. Suddenly, there was something much more important than me and all my perceptions changed accordingly. The infinite reactive waves that affected her became much more prominent in my view of the world and I found myself reacting more than acting. Things I had hardly noticed before became infinitely more important and things that I had engrossed myself in faded into forgotten obscurity.

As time passes I am more sensitive to both tiny incoming ripples and the breadth and width of my actions spreading outward in all directions. Perspective is a mysterious force. It grows greater with every failure and weaker with success. You can't gain it without losing and you usually lose it when you win. It can be our lens to the world and our blindness to our place within it. Perspective is a gift that can't be given and a need that can't be felt; yet it is essential for happiness.