Perspective (n): a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view.

The reality of perspective.

A few months back, I was standing on a overlook of the Blue Ridge Park. Two things caught my eye. One is directly in front of the all the trees that make up the forest below in the photo. It is a single tree that is growing right in front of where I took my photo. The color of the tree stood out against the darker hues of the forest below. I wouldn’t have noticed it or seen it though if I wasn’t standing right in front of it. The perspective of this photo would have completely been different in I had taken the photo one foot to the left or the right.

What you see isn’t always what you get

Perspective changes things. Often we think we know something when in reality we only know a little bit of the bigger picture because the perspective that we are looking through is guided by our circumstances. The other object that caught my eye is in the photo is something that appears to be little more than a brown speck in a sea of green trees. Taken from one perspective you could even assume that the speck is just something on the camera lens. In reality that speck is a grand two story house. It is far enough away that from afar it looks trivial and unimportant. In reality though if you were standing in front of it and looking back to where I took the phone then you’d notice that the tree in front of my camera lens is minuscule compared to the massive house.

The key

In life we need to make sure that we are seeing the wider picture. We need to step back and consider everything from a wider perspective. We need to make sure that we are being wise and that we’re being objective enough to consider all the aspects that we can possible perceive. We are not able to see everything on our own. Sometimes we need to invite others to help shape our perspective and lean on their knowledge. By doing so we can make sure our perspective isn’t being unduly influenced from where we are currently standing.