The last few days I've had some commonality in my reading. Not planned, different things I am reading are kind of working together. The biggie is it's all about perspective.
How you look at something really depends on how you feel about it. Two people can see the exact same thing but feel differently depending on their perspective. The one example I read was about a $30 bottle of wine. If you're at a restaurant and that's the most expensive bottle of wine they have, it probably tastes really good, especially if you've made your way through the $5 bottles. But if you're at a 4 star restaurant and that same $30 bottle is the cheapest wine they have, does it still taste as amazing? Even after a $400 bottle?
Too often we warp our perspective to fit our surroundings. I'm a good person compared to the druggies I hang out with. Would I still think I'm a good person if I spent a week at a monastery? I hit this when I think about being in shape. For a lot of people my age, I'm doing okay. When I play sports with 15-year-olds on Sunday nights, I don't feel the same.
To balance our perspective, we need to be measuring whatever it is we're looking at against something that will help us see things for what they really are. If you want things to get better, you need to look at the very best and have the perspective of trying to get there. If you want to feel you are the best, look for the worst and compare yourself to that. In situations in everyday life, we can look at the billionaires or we can look at the 3 billion people that live on less than $2 a day.
And to steal a quote (I've seen it accredited to more than one person, whoever said it, bravo), the sinking of the Titanic was a miracle to the lobsters in the kitchen.
T
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