One Person's Perspective

There has been this song, or at least a line of a song, rattling
around in my mind this past week. I don't know for sure if it's
from a Saturday morning cartoon, or Sesame Street or the Electric
Company or where exactly I remember it from so many years ago.

The line is this: That's about the size, where you put your eyes…
That's about the size of it. (It's a lot better sung than just
reading it). If anyone knows where it is from, please let me know.

The song was about how we see things. About how differently objects
appear depending on how close or how far away from them we are. It
came to me Monday while I was out mowing the back yard. I started
thinking about how small the yard seems today compared to when I was
growing up.

Years ago, I would leap off the swing and begin running for the far
end of the yard. Because it took so long to reach my destination, I
would turn around half way and go back to the swing.

Today, there is almost nothing to it. Unless of course the
temperature is 90 degrees, it has rained for a week straight, the
grass is 2 feet tall, trees begin growing in the fences, the sun
beats down brighter than ever before and the mower keeps clogging up
because of it all. Then it is a huge yard.

It's all in how you look at it.

Speaking of how we see things, there is a danger in doing the same
things the same way day after day. We become blinded to so much
that is out there. Everything seems the same, looks the same, smells
the same, goes by at the same pace, day--after day--after day.

We put ourselves into a sort of rut because we only see things in
one way. While it makes us feel better to blame our job, our boss,
our friends, our in-laws, the dog, telemarketers, co-workers, the
weather, our pet rock or just because we were born under a bad sign
for our life as it is, truth is, it has all been our choice.

Because in most cases, we have gotten ourselves into this, we can
change it. To do it, we need to see things differently.

In Dead Poets Society, John Keating (played by Robin Williams) is an
English teacher who wants to get his students to see life
differently than they have.

To do so, he begins in a small way… by having them stand up on his
desk in the classroom. It is just a classroom. The same classroom
they have come to day after day. But seeing things from 29 inches
off the ground can provide an entirely different view of the world.

Now I don't advise anyone to knock off everything from the dining
room table and climb on top, just keep it simple. Take a different
way to work, re-arrange furniture, change your routine a little bit.
You'll be surprised at how different 1 hour can make things seem.

Finally, perception is something in which 650 words can not do
justice. There is so much more to it than just seeing things
differently, although that has a lot to do with it.

There are still our perceptions of ourselves, of our surroundings,
of others, of what others think of us, of what we think others think
of us and so many more combinations.

In a way, perception is who we are, who we can be, what we can do
and where we can go. The best news? We have the power. We are in
control. We can change it if we don't like what we see. As the song
says, (and maybe a bit of a re-write can be used someday), that's
about the size, where I put my eyes… that's about the size of that.