It's All in How You Look at Things

Today I was working on a free writing exercise for my writing class. The one concept that remained in my brain was the idea of perspective. Everybody has a different one no matter what the topic. You can share something vital with a person and still have a different perspective. My sister and I share a family but are 2 different people. We have many things in common and share many interests, but we approach much of life differently. We can read the same book and both love it, but for very different reasons. My cousin and I are less than 1 year apart. We grew up together. The same people were in our lives and we went through the 90’s at the same age. Yet him and I are totally different people with different perspectives on everything. He lives with his (wonderful) girlfriend and their (beautiful/awesome) daughter. They are happy with their lives, content to not be married, and adore their girl. If you knew her, you would adore her too. I, on the other hand, live with my boyfriend and would like to someday be married and have no burning desire for children. Both ways of living are right for who we are, but each of those facts effects how we approach life. When a couple has a communication issue, many times, a therapist will force them to walk in the other person’s shoes. It is something that usually helps, but can never be done completely. I can sit and try to think of something the way my guy would. But there is no way to absolutely know how he would think of something because I don’t have his life experiences.  This is not a bad thing. It is what makes the world unique and diverse. But think about it, can you ever really know what someone is thinking? As humans, we can speak to each other and try to explain what is in our heads. I can tell you that it makes me sad when someone dies in a movie. A person who is mute can communicate the same thing by crying. Language and communication help us interact with each other. Yet if you think about it, this can be a barrier too. I can’t communicate with words how I am feeling to someone who doesn’t speak/understand English. And even if I could speak another language, there may still be some things I miss. I could teach myself how to speak Italian with some ease. Yet if I were to go to Italy, I would still miss out on things because I am not a native Italian. My brain would still be thinking in English and translating that to Italian. Now as far as communicating goes, that would be helpful. But it would change my perspective still. I would miss some intricacies that maybe don’t translate because the languages and cultures are different. I can never truly know how a person from Italy thinks just I can never know what a dog thinks. As humans, we assume was can understand how different animals feel/think based on studying them. But we are assigning traits to them based on how we think/feel as humans. Dogs mourn the loss of their humans. Or so we believe. This is something that we ascribe to them based on their reactions. But dogs can’t talk to us, and we can never know for sure if this is how they feel because we can never think like them. We have never been a dog. I could go on for hours, but it would all come down to the same thing. Don’t ever assume something because your perspective is different from that of everyone and everything. So always approach life with an open mind and try to live it the way that makes the most sense to you based on your perspective.