Shake It Up With Perspective
My last entry, about Google and their threat to move out of China, began with the words "news is coming out about..." Well at the same time news was coming out about another event - the earthquake in Haiti.
When events like this happen I always think about how we need to use perspective when judging events in life. However we, well I anyway, rarely use perspective. We tend to think that our plight is terrible. The furnace that needed to be replaced. Will that ice dam on the roof cause water damage this spring? What about that sump pump - will it work? That noisy bathroom fan.
What a joke.
We have nothing substantive to complain about in our lives...if perspective is used. So, with some perspective, I will say that I am among the luckiest person in the world. I live in Canada. A first-world, rich, well-off, society with a solid safety net. I have a house, two healthy children and an amazing wife. I now live in a city that it not prone to any serious natural dangers.
Having said that it is also true that perspective depends on the eyes through which the world is being observed. Last autumn I had some very interesting conversations with a man from the Ivory Coast. He has been living in Montreal for many years and yet, while he finds that his life is very comfortable in Canada and that, materially, there is no comparison, finds that one thing is lacking here in this rich country - real and genuine human contact.
Different perspectives:
-the poorest country in the western hemisphere vs. a G8 country
-Loblaws a 7 minute drive away vs. an empty plate for many meals
-solid homes in tree lined neighbourhoods vs. shanty towns on steep hillsides prone to slides
-minus 20 degree weather vs. yearly threats of hurricanes and earthquakes
-being there for your neighbours vs. not knowing them
-feeling lucky to be alive vs. taking life for granted
-not having the luxury of thinking of anything but the present vs. ignoring the present
Our hurried lives and our focus on our immediate environment as we ignore others has made having perspective an effort. The world would have a lot more empathy and, possibly, be wiser in its decision making if we took the time to consider different perspectives. Society might just be more content, satisfied and humbled.
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