Perspective is a funny thing.
I become so used to my own, 5'4" from the ground (give or take 1/4" depending on how worn my TOMS are), looking through young blue grey green eyes that have seen sunlight nearly every day of their 20 years.
My outlook on life and my worldview are shaped by my perspective, by the things I've experienced and seen. My perspective is unique because no one else has lived my life.
Explaining how one's perspective, thinking patterns, ideas, and understanding are/have been/will be changing is like trying to explain swimming to someone who has lived in a desert their entire life.
The reason I started thinking about this is as follows: today I found myself in the theoretical but very real trap of creating a metaphor for a metaphor.
I tried to think of a way to relate the bizarre impression of vertigo I felt when the rearview mirror in my car fell off while I was driving to something else - but how can the feeling of suddenly not being able to see in two directions at once while moving be explained? I can't think of another way to explain it. It just is what it is. Like in math class with those pesky algebra problems, this answer cannot be simplified.
What is a metaphor for the way water soaks into dry land? How do you describe a description?
How do I explain what it looks like to have a room filled with sunlight coming through a window that has been blocked for years?
I can't.
Maybe we can all imagine a sort of picture of what those things may look like, but that's because we've seen them before. If you haven't seen something before, you can't really understand what it looks like.
Your perspective can't account for things that you haven't experienced or learned, and when your perspective changes it can be as foreign to someone else as the concept of mp3's would be to someone who had only ever listened to records.
Perspective is a funny thing. And when it changes, slowly or dramatically, it can be as hard to rationalize or explain as the sudden loss of the assurance of a rearview mirror. And if no one else has ever driven the type of car that tends to have things like the rearview mirror fall off, it's possible that no one will know what I'm talking about.
So I suppose, by my own explanation, no one will understand this post. It won't resonate in your bones or change your lifestyle. But still, my wish is that we'd all have our perspective widened a little bit. If you need to stop revisiting the past, I hope your rearview mirror falls off. If you feel thirsty and dry, I hope you get the refreshment you need. If you're in the dark, I hope you find a window.
And when you do, and your perspective changes, I hope you remember what it was like to look back, be thirsty, or be in the dark. Because our perspectives are best used to understand other people.
