Perspective

One of the most haunting phantoms one can have is a forgotten memory, is it not? Think of it—we go through life, and our brains are awake, taking in and processing information for about sixteen hours a day; well if you’re lucky enough actually to get a full night’s sleep. That is:

5,840 hours a year.

350,400 minutes a year.

21,024,000 seconds a year.

This endless movie reel goes on, and what do we actually remember? We remember the highlight reel, a few snippets that make for only a small portion of what we have actually experienced. Yet, as every moment passes, we are continuously learning and evolving as a person and as a human being.

The memories remembered may have the most significant impacts on us, but what about those forgotten by the conscious mind, the ones that surface only on rare occasion? We walk through our lives, and as much as we refute the fact, we are tied to the past. We are as much in the past as we are in the present.

What we’ve learned and what we’ve done continue to have an impact on who we are in the current moment. However, most of it has gone forgotten, yet it stills plays us like a puppeteer.

In a way, subconsciously, we are often possessed by ghosts of our past. We attempt to stay away from our fears and embrace the comfort. As Shakespeare said,

Tis dangerous to take a cold, to sleep, to drink; but I tell you, my lord fool, out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.

It is all too easy to fall into a particular point of view, an individual perspective, and that is something we can’t refute. Even the most open-minded individual can fall to the grips of bias.

To fight, take control of life, take your soul from the grips of what was, and put it into the hands of what is, you must find comfort in danger. In this world, for every good, there is bad—for every right, there is wrong.

We can look at every distinct situation in one of two manners—this is good, or this is bad. We can choose how we look at every situation. If you look at all of them and see most of them as positive, you are an optimist. If you look at all of them and see most of them as unfavorable, you are a pessimist. If you look at all of them and blindly see all the good, you are naïve. If you look at all of them and blindly see all the bad, you have been hurt because you were once naïve.

There is a medium in all of this, however. If you take the power of perspective, you remember that you had a choice in all the predicaments you were put into. The ability of choice is the definition of our free will.

It is in what hasn’t been said that you find the lesson in which this provides. We have the choice to see right and wrong.

When we view the world in this manner, we can come to a realization—one in which there is always a medium. Think of yourself as a lonesome treeling in wild plains. On a calm day, when you do as you please, you stand straight for the rays of the sun. You soak the warmth and the energy of which you need so dearly. However, when the winds of winter blow, you sway in all directions. You must be able to grow the bark of your trunk and the sap of your veins so you can find stability in your core.

If you lean too far to the left, your vision on your right is skewed—too far ahead, and you can’t see behind. However, if you remain straight and true to yourself, you can see everything equally.