Deficiency of Perspective

When While E. Coyote paints the tunnel on the solid rock wall, he bends the perspective of the Road Runner to the extent that the road runner doesn't know he shouldn't be able to run through it.  The Coyote of course knows better, and is impacted with predictable results.

It’s clear to me that perspective is maybe the greatest of all virtues and it consistently gets the shaft.  Virtues in and of themselves, are a slippery thing; dangerously close to morals, and a close kissing cousin to values. We all know how dangerous values are and how often they are pirated by the media or a politician. Virtues, are perhaps one of the more high jacked concepts in our persona.  We all know the 7 Christian values….I’m not yapping about those.  I’m talking about the virtues we don’t need to be reminded about, innate virtues.  Beauty, Grace (the under pressure kind) Charm, Wisdom, (add your own virtues here) and Perspective, which is undervalued and under reported.

Perspective adds depth to our understanding.  Without perspective we are left in a world defined by what we see ourselves (or what we think we've seen), and what we believe others have seen; all tinted through the lens our own limited scope of knowledge.  A classic example is the “Round Earth vs. Flat Earth” argument.  Most folks find this comical today, but for the greater part of human history we “knew” the earth was flat.  It was only relatively recently that Pythagoras, confirmed the math, Magellan sailed round the world without falling off, and as a final proof the space programs multitude of measurements and photos confirms that the planet is round (technically a spheroid).

Time, science, and effort give us the perspective we need to laugh at the Flat Earth Society like we laughed at the Y2K doomsayers’. Honestly, I think perspective is minimized by many aspects of our society, so people believe what they are told to believe, rather than what their own personal experiences dictate.

I was reminded of this on a recent business trip to Hobbs NM, which is best described as west, West Texas and as an oil boom town has the faint whiff of gas in the air.  This place is fairly isolated with Roswell, NM and all of its associated aliens, as the closest biggest metropolitan center. As I introduced myself to the class I was teaching I mentioned I was new to the State of New Mexico and spent the last few years working in New Jersey.  New Mexicans are welcoming folks by nature and the class quickly derailed my opening remarks by the barrage of questions I’m accustomed to hearing when folks find out I’m new here.  First question is almost always “Why New Mexico” then “What do you think” and lastly usually something about Chili, or simply put “Red or Green?” (The New Mexico State Question)

I thought I had satisfied the group with my answers, but one gentlemen who I shall refer to as Cowboy (due to the hat, mustache, vest, and persona that would have made Wyatt Earp jealous) said “You don’t sound like all of those Jersey A-holes we seen on TV.”  I must have looked a bit stunned, and my first impulse was to say “No, I’m not one of those A-Holes.” Cowboy continued, “Prove It!” “The proof is, I moved here to New Mexico” That bought me some time, and we moved on.  During the 1^st break I was cornered by folks who based a large part of their knowledge of the Northeast on what they had seen on TV.  Many had never left this flat dusty corner of the world, nor had any intention to, so TV became reality. 

Think about that, TV as reality, a scary concept but not that far off.  We have Reality TV which (Spoiler Alert) is about as real as Pro Wrestling, we have made for TV movies, we have Hollywood movies on TV, (yuck more John Cusack and Sandra Bullock) we have the history channel broadcasting “Nazis vs. Aliens” we have CSPAN, CNN, Nickelodeon and AMC……lots of entertainment, but none are reality. 

It’s a problem of perspective, or more appropriately a lack thereof. The information age has made it easy to fire up a device and search out info, however technology has also made it ridiculously easy to publish faulty information (for example this Blog).  The right answer is out there, but only if I’m interested and smart enough to sort through the muck and quagmire to find it.  The other day, I had to try and explain this to my son, who said, as he read Ripley’s Believe it Or Not, something to the effect that it must be true since it’s in a book.  When I heard that I just about ruptured, but when I tried to explain that you have to be critical of the information you consume, I botched it terribly.  Explaining to a kid why one source is better than the next, when both sources are in writing, is not so easy.

(I think the parallel would be having kids explain to you why they can see you kiss your spouse goodbye, but when the kissing scene happens at the end of the movie, they close their eyes and say Groooossss!)

Before I came to NM, all I knew about the State was what little I could read on Wiki Whatever and the Series Breaking Bad.  Many of you probably base your whole conception of Albuquerque on Breaking Bad; because that’s all you know.  It’s like going into a library and checking out the only book on the subject…..and in truth; Albuquerque became a big part of the cast of that show.  However, beyond the scenery and the product placement, I think you might agree that one show cannot represent an entire city.

I thought about this on my 6 hour drive back from Hobbs and became slightly concerned over the perception these folks must have had for me once they learned I worked in NJ…….Sopranos, Jersey Shore, Real House Wives, Boardwalk Empire, Cake Boss, Bikini Barbershop, these are just a few of the more recent shows that highlight the NJ attitude, lifestyle and perpetuate the A-Hole persona Cowboy was concerned over. It’s as if he walked into the library and checked out a half dozen books and all generally confirmed one another.

Perception is reality, which is really a lesson in understanding people and understanding yourself.  How people perceive you, IS what they know, perspective is the key to understanding what they've seen.