Perspective is Everything

The way we view the world. The lens through which we perceive things. The perspective we take. Our entire life is determined by perspective. I give my son a camera and he walks around the house taking pictures. Afterwards I flip through the pictures he has taken and notice how completely different they are from the ones I take. He is after all only 100cm tall, and this alters the physical angle from which he views our home. He is also 4 years old and he has a different set of values than I do. He takes 1 picture of me, but 20 pictures of the fridge. I ask him why and he responds innocently that there were 20 different pictures and notes and magnets on the fridge, but there is only one of me. Perspective is everything.

In class today I had a student tell me a long story about Abenomics and the current state of the Japanese economy. At the end of the story she proudly told me her opinion. She said “I think Prime Minister Abe is working very hard so I hope that his plans for the economic recovery will succeed”. This student had prepared this entire story so that at the end she could practice the weekly One Point lesson. I will surprised and impressed. She is the same student who thanked me for having given her 52 presents over the previous year. When I asked what she meant, she said that every week we had given her a One Point phrase and that each one was like a gift. Her perspective is not that these are homework, but rather a free gift given to her by her teacher. Perspective is everything.

The classic adage says that the optimist sees the glass as half full and the pessimist sees it as half empty. The modern take says that the designer see it as a poorly designed glass and the engineer sees it as a waste of glass. No one is wrong. Everyone is right. It is only the point of view which changes. Perspective is everything. Where we choose to stand, how we choose to perceive things and the results therein are what make us the individuals that we are. What do you see in the picture above?

Edward, Smith’s School of English Otsu