Perspective One

A thousand words or twenty minutes.

In a conversation with my friend Francis:  he makes a statement: he says – ‘The truth’ is beyond all human beings perspectives’ – This is a interesting statement to consider because it questions the potential of personal perspectives. Before continuing with this article, it seems I should point out the statement does not infer ‘The Truth’ cannot be known, discovered or understood.

I have decided to write this article using a free-flowing mind. There is no knowing where my thoughts will take me; the probability is the thousand or so words will provide an insight into my interpretation of the word perspective. Until the next paragraph begins, I do not  know how I perceive the meaning of the word relative to my life. I will now instruct my mind to ignore time, and I feel past and present tense will combine in the article. I will also experiment with combining first person, second person and third person. It does not matter how the article will evolve; to my mind all free thinking writing is an experiment, failure or success, who cares. I will start the timer:-

“Ian’s perspective on life and people has been changing of late. He now looks at outside environments not with an opinion, but with interest in what he will learn from the investigation of everything in the environment. Rather than having a preconceived idea of how he would prefer the environment to be and then make changes; he prefers to look within the environment and see what is available.

So, does Ian have a perception of how he is perceived? He would like to be acknowledged as a creative man. What is his interpretation of ‘creative’ ? He considers being a creative is ‘culturing an ability to use words and photographs which when combined reveal his inner mind’. He feels to become a creative individual, we should observe the world with an open mind. Having a closed and predetermined perception of how life should be limits the possibility of creating new opportunities. So he wishes to be perceived as a man who can utilise the objects, thoughts, opinions, situations in his environment to create a secure and happy life.

Ian’s articles have similar requirements; they should be unbiased observations which allow the reader to form their conclusions. If the pieces are well composed, the sentences and paragraphs make sense, they may open the reader’s mind to imagine better concepts of happiness, security and success. The ability to use the imagination is crucial to creative endeavour. Ian’s perspective is; to be a creative individual there are two factors. One he must absorb as much of the information pertinent to his work. And second, he needs to work, reflect and reconsider the knowledge and information, possibly for days before he can produce an article which is memorable”.

So the word perspective in this example is considered: as an outlook, view, viewpoint, a point of view, standpoint, position, stand, stance, angle, slant, attitude, a frame of mind, frame of reference, approach, a way of looking/thinking, vantage point, interpretation.

The reader is guided by the idea that Ian prefers not to have perspective on a subject. Preferring to investigate other people perspective’s of a subject and reason with their opinion. He does not wish to have a personal opinion; his preference is to have an open mind and reason with a situation, to do this, he seeks to define other peoples perspective on a subject. The feeling is that ‘flexibility of thought’ is an essential factor of being happy and without worry.

By observing the perspectives of other people, we learn to accept the diversity of people’s opinions or viewpoints. In a way, the easiest way of life is to flow with the current of life. There is no suggestion of being sheep-like, the idea is to become always aware of the environment which surrounds us and experiencing being in the flow of the situations, successes, issues and celebrations. Ian feels to ‘experience’ the world is better than attempting to design or have a perspective on any subject or situation.

There seems to be happiness and security in the idea allowing the environment to flow around one’s life. Rather than form a perception of how life should be, the option of seeing where life will take you offers greater possibilities. There seems to be more pleasure in taking advantage of unknown possibilities as they enter into one’s life than attempting to turn one’s perception into reality.

The reader may need to ask ‘How do you take advantage of unknown possibilities? Surely if something is unknown, it is invisible and therefore cannot be seen?’ The counter-point is that forming opinions blind us to the possibilities which are available. Years ago, when my public speaking skills were not as good; there were times when hecklers attempted to ruin my talks. I know the way to deal with them is to agree with their comments. My answer is ‘I accept your perspective; it is correct from your viewpoint’ as indeed it is, there is no requirement for me to argue or dispute another person’s perspective. Indeed there may be something to learn from the idea.

Furthermore, one should accept that some inadequate people will attempt to shout down another person’s opinion to make them look a fool. This has happened to me on a few occasions: for example: I have speak to large groups of people about my ‘Philosophy of Selfness’. And it is inevitable; someone will confuse ‘selfness’ with ‘selfishness’. Their perception is fixed, and the reality is, their dogmatic approach is evidence of closed-minded thinking. Even so, I respect their right to their opinion and have no interest in countering their view. If they are not able to listen to my explanation of the philosophy, there is little point in re-explaining the simplicity of the idea.

I ‘go with the flow’ no matter what the restrictions ahead. There is no point in attempting to change the perspective of others; it is easier for them to have their say and move on. They will still be the rock in the rapids, as I continue in the fast running flow of life. As I travel along the river, there will be much to see and observe. If I wasted time with the impossible task of influencing or changing the perspective of closed-minded people, I would be stagnating in the past.

The reader may ask: ‘If Ian has no perspective and he prefers to ‘go with the flow’ how does he achieve anything?’ He can answer this by using his business ventures as an example:  ‘The objective is for the businesses LizianEvents and Lizian Shop to be profitable. There is no specific plan; there are methods which are tried. Nothing is fixed or preplanned’. One must understand there is no timescale or set steps of attainment. The success of the venture is proven if the businesses provide an income which sustains a reasonable standard of living and to be without any debts.

Ian’s journey runs in parallel with the two businesses. He is a writer and photographer, and these two assets are used to promote the companies. Each day he will write an average of fifteen hundred words for the LizianEvents News and the same for either his book or this WordPress site. Three thousand words a day equals 975000 words a year. Goodness.

Time Is Up