Perspective

Dear Boo and Bubble,

Captain always defines his time in the South Carolina legislature as a great learning experience.  Aside from the mechanics of operation (committee workings; processes for constructing and passing legislation; rules; seniority), he found the exercise of debate fascinating because it always introduced the element of perspective into every issue. 

Perspective is a tricky thing.  We all have a big funnel through which we process our culture, experiences, beliefs, prejudices and perceptions.  When these personal components spill through the spout of the funnel, it’s like a prism that reflects our world and opinions.  It is our perspective. No matter how close our circumstances might be to that of others, every funnel is different - some vastly, some only by degrees – but, different.  The resulting prisms cause us to view any given subject with such diversity that it’s hard to believe we could be looking at the same picture, reading the same words, hearing the same song.

In the legislative environment, Captain describes perspective this way.  A bill would come up for debate.  The advocates for its passage would take the podium and expound on the virtues, admonishing legislators to vote for it because failure to do so would create unimaginable consequences to the constituents they served.  By the time they finished, Captain would say to himself “I have to support this bill.  It’s like motherhood and apple pie.  Who can vote against it?”

Then the foes would arise, excoriating the precepts on which the legislation was founded, defining its weaknesses and shortcomings.  When they had their say, Captain would scratch his head.  “I can’t support this bill.  It would do away with motherhood and apple pie.  Who can vote for it?”

Now how can people perceive “motherhood” and “apple pie” as anything other than what they are?  It would be one of perspective’s slyest maneuvers - take something unarguable and confound the heck out of it!

The hardest thing for me about perspective is getting over my own in order to understand someone else’s.  I guess that’s why honest debate is important, yet it seems we are losing the art of it in our society.  (Last night, the first of many “debates” for the 2016 political season aired on television.  I put the word in quotation marks because what transpired hardly fits the classic definition.)  We can all learn from different perspectives and it shouldn’t require relinquishing our own to do so.  They must, however, be rooted in some basis of reality…….but, then again, everybody’s reality is different!