Perspectives: Perspective

 Look at these images.  Do you recognize them?

One of them is a light fixture from a restaurant, seen from exactly below the point where it attaches to the ceiling. Yes, the people in the restaurant were looking at me funny, but I didn't care.  The other one is a candle, seen from directly above the flame.

Our perspective changes how we see things. 

Can you truly understand someone if you can't see what that person is experiencing from the other person's perspective? As I am writing this, it is the day after women, all around the world, marched. From D.C., to Chicago, to Los Angeles, including marches in all 50 states and in cities around the world, men and women walked. Or stood still, because there were too many people to move anywhere. Today, I look on Facebook, and I see people denigrating those who marched. I see others reducing their efforts to nothing at all. 

I am blessed that in the work I do now, I am seen as a person of value, with gifts to offer and opinions to share. I am paid fairly, but it hasn't always been that way (in other jobs I've had, in other places). Growing up, I remember being treated as an object - rated by a teacher. I have been judged solely by my gender (She can't possibility understand how electricity works - I do understand, by the way) and by my looks (whether in a good or bad way). And my experiences are so mild compared to others'.

So, as I read Facebook today, I am angered. I am disappointed. I am proud. I am pleased. It is a mixed bag. I would appreciate it, though, if people would refrain from commenting about others they have not met, do not understand, and cannot judge because they will not see life from the other person's perspective.

Truthfully, I think we fail to see people as people - we see others as objects to be used for political gain.

This is not at all the post I intended to write, but it's in my mind today.