Seeing with a Different Perspective
Sculptress Louise Nevelson says that she collects things “for my eye.” And she has an exceptional eye. She believes that any of use can live in great beauty anywhere, as long as we’re alive to our environment. She lives near the Bowery in New York City. Even from there, she can “see the world.” Sitting in her dining room and looking out at the huge building that stands across the street, she can find varying patterns in the way the sun and the moon reflect on its windows. She can look at a chair and say, “The chair isn’t so hot, but look at its shadow.”
Finding What We Look For
Jim Smith went to church on Sunday morning. He heard the organist miss a note during the prelude, and he winced. He saw a teenager talking when everybody was supposed to be bowed in silent prayer. He felt like the usher was watching to see what he put in the offering plate and it made him boil. He caught the preacher making a slip of the tongue five times in the sermon by actual count. As he slipped out through the side door during the closing hymn, he muttered to himself, “Never again, what a bunch of clods and hypocrites!”
Ron Jones went to church one Sunday morning. He heard the organist play an arrangement of “A Mighty Fortress” and he thrilled at the majesty of it. He heard a young girl take a moment in the service to speak her simple moving message of the difference her faith makes in her life. He was glad to see that this church was sharing in a special offering for the hungry children of Nigeria. He especially appreciated the sermon that Sunday—it answered a question that had bothered him for a long time. He thought as he walked out the doors of the church, “How can a man come here and not feel the presence of God?”
Both men went to the same church on the same Sunday morning. Each found what he was looking for. What do we look for on Sunday morning?
Naive or What?
There was a women’s tournament at the golf club, and the turnout was so great the women had to used the men’s locker room as well as their own. Naturally, on that day the room was off-limits to men. But eight-year-old Tommy didn’t realize that. When he walked nonchalantly into the men’s locker room, he was greeted with shrieks as the women grabbed for cover. Tommy asked, “What’s the matter, haven’t you ever seen a little boy before?”
Was Lincoln Handsome?
A mother came to President Lincoln seeking the pardon of her son, under sentence of death. The result of her pleading was that Lincoln issued a pardon. After leaving him, as she passed through a corridor, she exclaimed to Thaddeus Steven, who accompanied her, “I knew it was a lie!” Stevens asked, “What do you refer to?” She replied with vehemence, “Why, they told me he was an ugly-looking man, but he is the handsomest man I ever saw in my life.”
My Time Is Your Time
A man asked God how long a million years was to Him. God replied, “It’s just like a single second of your time, my child.” So the man asked, “And what about a million dollars?” The Lord replied, “To me, it’s just like a single penny.” So the man gathered himself up and said, “Well, Lord, could I have one of your pennies?” And God said, “Certainly, my child, just a second.”
You and Your Neighbor
Have you ever noticed: When the other fellow acts that way, he is ugly; when you do, it’s nerves. When others are set in their ways, they’re obstinate; when you are, it is firmness. When your neighbor doesn’t like your friend, he’s prejudiced; when you don’t like his, you are a good judge of human nature. When he tries to treat someone especially well, he’s toadying; when you try it, you are being thoughtful.
When he takes time to do things well, he’s a slowpoke or lazy; when you do, you are deliberate and careful. When he spends a lot, he is a spendthrift; when you do, you’re generous. When someone picks flaws in things, he’s cranky and critical; when you do, you are creative. When he is mild-mannered, you call him weak; when you are, it is graciousness. When someone dresses especially well, that person is extravagant; when you do, it is tastefulness. When he says what he thinks, he’s spiteful; when you do, you are being frank. When he takes great risks in business, he’s foolhardy; when you do, you are a wise financier.
Nova Scotia Perspective
Former Undersecretary of the Interior John C. Whitaker was reminded of how easy it is to get an out-of-perspective feeling about one’s importance in government whenever he thinks of an eighty-five-year-old woman who has lived her life in one spot in Nova Scotia. The population there swells to nine in summer and stays steady at two during the winter.
Whitaker, who has been fishing there every year since he was twelve, flew in one day. Miss Mildred welcomed him into her kitchen and said, “Johnny, I have to admit I don’t know, but where is Washington?” When Whitaker realized that she wasn’t kidding, he explained: “That’s where the president is. That’s like where you have the prime minister in Ottawa.”
Then she asked how many people lived there, and Whitaker said there were about 2 million. She said, “Think of that, 2 million people living so far away from everything.”
Changing Taste
Novelist and editor William Dean Howells was talking with an author who was known for having a very high regard for himself. The author said, “You know, my books are selling very well. I’m getting rich, but I think my work is falling off. I don’t think my recent writing is as good as my earlier works.” Howells retorted, “Nonsense, you write as well as you ever did. Your taste is improving, that’s all.”
Both Top and Bottom
Corrie ten Boom often showed a piece of embroidery to her audiences. She would hold up the piece of cloth, first showing the beauty of the embroidered side, with all the threads forming a beautiful picture, which she described as the plan God has for our lives. Then she would flip is over to show the tangled, confused underside, illustrating how we view our lives from a human standpoint.
Grand Canyon Perspective
Three people were visiting and viewing the Grand Canyon—an artist, a pastor, and a cowboy. As they stood on the edge of that massive abyss, each one responded with a cry of exclamation. The artist said, “Ah, what a beautiful scene to paint!” The minister cried, “What a wonderful example of the handiwork of God!” The cowboy mused, “What a terrible place to lose a cow!”
The Beam in the Eye
Father Murphy stopped in the local barber shop for a shave and haircut to find the barber hung over from a heavy weekend. He endured the shaking hand, but when the shave was over, decided a brief sermon was in order. “Look at this cut on my throat!” he exclaimed. “And this one by the ear, and this other one on my upper lip, it might have cost me my nose. And all due to whiskey!” The barber replied, “You’re right, Father, drinking does make the skin very tender.”
Differing Standards
Everyone looks at life with their own perspective, bringing their own standards, their own ways of assessing a situation. A. H. Livingstone is a man who sells etchings to hotel managers. He is always trying to get his potential customer to raise his sights in the matter of standards of art. His product costs more, but he feels it is one that makes the room look better than the usual sporting prints or flower pictures that are more typically found in hotel rooms. When he tried to sell his product to a Los Angeles hotel, the manager was unimpressed, and reminded him that the typical pictures he bought were only half as much as his prints. Finally Livingstone said, “Don’t you care about the quality of art you give your guests?” The manager replied, “Standards, sure, I have one standard, and that’s all I need. Any picture that goes into one of my bedrooms has to be too large to fit into a suitcase.”
Sunday Job
If you can smile when everything is going wrong, the chances are you’re a plumber working on a Sunday.
You Have to Start from Somewhere
One morning an elementary school teacher asked her class how many points a compass has. She was surprised when one little boy stuck up his hand and said, “Five.” She asked him, “Five? What are they?” He counted them off: “North, south, east, west, and where I am.”
Our Own Agenda
In the recreation room of a California retirement home, four ladies were playing bridge and chatting. An elderly gentleman wandered into the room. They recognized him as a newcomer, and they all perked up. One of the ladies said, “Hello, there. You’re new here, aren’t you?” He smiled and replied that he was, indeed, new. He had just moved in that morning. Another lady said, “Where did you live before you moved in?” He replied, “I was just released from San Quentin, where I spent the last twenty years.” A third lady said, “Oh, really? What were you in for?” He replied, “I murdered my wife.” The fourth lady sat up and smiled brightly, “Oh, then you’re single?”
Not Much Value Anymore
A book collector ran into an unbookish acquaintance who soon revealed that old books didn’t mean anything to him. In fact, he observed he had just thrown again a big old Bible which has been packed away in the attic of his ancestral home for generations. He was describing it and said, “Somebody named Guten-some-thing had printed it.” The bibliophile gasped. “Not Gutenburg! You idiot! You’ve just thrown away one of the first books ever printed. A copy sold recently at an auction for over a million dollars!” But the other man was unmoved. He responded, “No, not my copy. It wouldn’t have brought a dime. Some fellow named Martin Luther had scribbled notes all through it!”
Oversized Target
Saul’s soldiers thought Goliath was too big to kill. David thought he was too big to miss!
Different Mentalities
The Stanford Research Institute was making a study of how different people think, how they perceive things differently. The devised a short but succinct test to use in their interviews and proceeded to call in several people from different walks of life.
The first to come in was an engineer. The researchers asked him: “Tell us, what does two plus two make?” The engineer didn’t hesitate a moment—but simply said, “Well, if you mean in absolute terms—two and two make four.” The researchers made their notes, thanked the engineer and dismissed him.
Next, they called in an architect. They asked him the same question and he said, “Well, there are several possibilities: two and two make four, but so do three and one—or two and one-half and one and one-half—they also make four. So, it is all a matter of choosing the right option.” The researchers thanked him and made their notes.
The last of the three to come in was an attorney. They said to him, “What does two and two make?” The attorney looked around furtively, asked if he could close the door for privacy, and then came over close, leaned toward them and said, “Well, tell me, what would you like it to be?”
Can You Top This?
The story is told about an old minister who survived the great Johnstown flood. He loved to tell the story over and over in great detail. Everywhere he went, he would spend all his time talking about this great historic event in his life. One day he died and went to heaven and there in a meeting all the saints had gathered together to share their life experiences. The old minister got all excited and ran to Peter (who, naturally, was in charge) and asked if he might tell the exciting story of his survival from the Johnstown flood. Peter hesitated for a moment and then said, “Yes, you may share, but just remember that Noah will be in the audience tonight.”
Personal Context
The easiest things to decide are what you’d do if you were in someone else’s shoes.
A Flexible Bias
A woman who was called to jury duty told the presiding judge that she was not qualified to serve because she did not believe in capital punishment. The judge said, “You don’t understand, madam. This is a civil case involving a man who spent five thousand dollars of his wife’s money on gambling and other women.” To which the woman replied eagerly, “I’ll be happy to serve, your honor, and I’ve changed my mind about capital punishment.”
Jumping to Conclusions
Two men came to Miami from the Arctic regions, where they had lived all their life. On the bus to the hotel, they passed one of the bays where some people were water-skiing. Having only seen their kayaks and other hand-propelled boats throughout their lifetime, one man asked the other, “What makes that boat go so fast?” The other man watched for a few seconds, then replied, “Man on string push it.”
Not Everyone Was Festive
After the Sunday school teacher told the story of the Prodigal Son to the class, she asked, “Was anyone sorry when the Prodigal Son returned?” One boy answered, “The fatted calf.”
Half the Truth
The difference between ourselves and others is that we don’t tell half of what we know, while they don’t know half of what they tell.
Home Improvement Strategy
A good architect can improve the looks of an old house merely by discussing the cost of a new one.
Thrust Out into the Sky
There is an awkward moment at the top of a ferris wheel when, having come up the inside curvature, where we are facing into a firm structure of confident girders, suddenly that structure disappears, and we are thrust out into the sky for the outward curve down. Such perhaps is the present moment.
Pervasive Odor
If a man has limburger cheese on his upper lip, he thinks the whole world smells.
Disinterested Party
There are two sides to every question—as long as it doesn’t concern us personally.
Basic Vision
If I think of you as a friend and collaborator, my emotions on meeting you will be warm and positive. If I see you as an enemy and competitor, my emotions will be just the opposite. You will remember the little verse:
Two men looked out from prison bars, One saw mud, one saw stars.
In the pursuit of the fullness of human life, everything depends on this frame of reference, this habitual outlook, this basic vision that I have of myself, others, life, the world, and God. What we see is what we get.
Consequently, if you or I are to change, to grow into persons who are more fully human and more fully alive, we shall certainly have to become aware of our vision and patiently work at redressing its imbalances and eliminating its distortions. All real and permanent growth must begin here. A shy person can be coaxed into assuming an air of confidence, but it will only be a mask—one mask replacing another. There can be no real change, no real growth in any of us until and unless our basic perception of reality, or vision, is changed.
Lazy Perspective
The city man bought a farm and was visited by his new neighbor. He asked him, “Can you tell me where the property lines run between our farms?” The farmer looked him over and asked, “Are you talking owning or mowing?”
Self-fulfilling
We lost because we told ourselves we lost. –Leo Tolstoy