I was recently at a friend’s home and noticed an old garage on her property. I immediately saw an awesome photo opportunity. After taking the photo I played around with it a bit and settled on a black and white version. I clearly saw it as a piece of artwork. I sent the photo to my friend and she said to take the garage home and I could have the old wreck. We laughed about it and that was it. I thought how could she not see the beauty in it? We viewed the same exact object in two completely different ways. That got me thinking about how different people see the world and everything in it in such different ways.
We all tend to get set in our own views and opinions. The key is to remember nobody’s vision is right or wrong, just different. I know I get very set in the way I view things at certain times, and I look at other people like they are nuts when they don’t see it my way. Although I am learning to take a step back and observe from other people’s point of view that is not an easy thing for me to do all the time.
We see the world from the inside out. If we could focus on things from the outside in I am sure it would change our view. That is a difficult thing to comprehend and put into practice. What seems stupid, ugly or insignificant to me, may be the smartest, most beautiful and most important thing to you. If we really want a different view from our own, have a conversation with a child. Children seem to have a perspective on things that an adult doesn’t even think of. Children have not been influenced by the world yet and see things for what they are for the most part. As the great Wayne Dyer puts it, “children haven’t been de-genioused by the world”. Many times in conversation with my daughter, her perspective on things really gets me thinking and makes me realize my outlook has been influenced by the outside world and in many ways negatively. The innocence and simplicity in their thought process is something we could all learn from.
The next time my wife Sherry and I were getting ready to visit Julie she asked me if I could bring her an 8×10 photo of that old garage on her property. I didn’t ask why and said absolutely. I also did chuckle to myself and thought she saw a different point of view and now it is artwork to her also. At that moment I was inspired to write this.
I feel we all need to take some time and see things from different points of views and opinions. It just may change our vision for our own life and the lives of those around us. I wish we could re-capture that child-like innocence and see things for what they are or what they could be and not what we think they should be or what they are not. Whether we change our humanitarian views, political views, social views or maybe just the view of an old run down garage, we will expand our vision for ourselves and in doing so put other’s views before our own making everyone’s opinion matter. Imagine a world like that…..