Significance of Perspectives

Vaishak Menon

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” 
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

We as humans are critically flawed. As a matter of fact, despite of all the perks of being advanced living creatures with complex civilizations, we’re more imperfect than we are perfect. We draw imaginary lines on our earth and fight real wars defending them. That should convince you if you thought otherwise.

So what does that have to do with perspective? Everything! If we saw all of us as human beings than those on the wrong side of the border, we’d be much happier and we would have better human resources, leading to universal brotherhood, eradication of poverty and even cancer might have ended up being an easily curable disease! Of course there’s a lot more, but you get the general flow.

So is the world really an exact opposite of everything happy?

Not really. The point is - it all depends on how you look at it.

Yes, there are times when the entire world seems to be working against you. It might seem like God Almighty decided for you to have a bad day and every failure might seem like another rock striking the sinking ship you call life. But really, it’s not all that bad. If you think about it, the rocks might come in handy when you’re trying to fend the sharks away.

 

Take something like the Taj Mahal. It’s beautiful in the pictures. Even when you’re entering the gate leading to it, it’s a sight for sore eyes. But once you make your way to it, you’ll see how age and pollution has had adverse effects on it.

So you see, the same things can appear pretty or well, not so pretty, and it all depends on your perspective.

I say - have a positive but realistic approach to life. Try to take a moment to relish the beauty in every single imperfection around you, be it in people or other things.

Try to put yourself in others’ shoes and look at every failure like it’s an opportunity. These are two tiny things that can take you a long way in life.

So you see, perspective is more important than you thought.

Here’s a funny example on various perspectives. It was posted on Quora by Apoorva Tiwari,

“Women chatting in their office”

Woman 1 : I had a fine evening yesterday, how was yours?

Woman 2 : It was a disaster. My husband came home, ate dinner in 3 minutes and fell asleep in 2 minutes. How was yours?

Woman 1 : Oh it was amazing. My husband came home and took me out for a romantic dinner. After dinner, we walked for an hour. When we came home, we lit candles around the house and afterwards we talked for an hour. It was like a fairy tale.

At the same time , their husbands are talking at work

Husband 1 : How was your evening?

Husband 2 : Great. I came home, dinner was on table, I ate and fell asleep. It was great. What about you?

Husband 1 : It was horrible. I came home, there was no dinner, and they cut the electricity as I hadn't paid the bill! So I had to take my wife out to dinner which was so expensive that I didn't have money left for cab . We had to walk home which took an hour. When we got home, there was no electricity, so I had to light candles all over the house. After all, I was so aggravated that I couldn't fall asleep and my wife was jabbering away for another hour.

So you see, how having a different perspective can transform a sad situation to a happy one, and vice-versa?

What are your opinions on having perspectives? Do you have an experience to share? Do let us know in the comments sections below!