01/11/2021 - A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF CHANGING OUR POINT OF VIEW
If life is a novel, each of us is the undisputed protagonist of his own book. Through our eyes, we write our story day by day. Each novel is unique and unrepeatable because it is filtered by the personal vision of the protagonist: everything is written from his own point of view.
Literally, the point of view is the spatial property of the position from which something is observed and it represents, in a broad sense, the mental position from which events are seen. The expression literally describes what we see in front of us depending on where we are when we look at it. When we walk around a city, the perception we have about it is totally different if we look at at it walking down the street or from the top floor of a skyscraper. The point of view influences our perception, which can also change radically.
In a broader sense, everyone has their own way of seeing things, their own personal perspective influenced by their height, their position, according to their own principles, thoughts, judgments and education. However, to build a complete opinion on something we need to look at it from different perspectives, without limiting our vision to the first and easiest possibility.
Throughout history, the ability to change point of view has encouraged humans to invent: from the printing to the internet, from the wheel to space travels. It’s about adapting intelligence to needs and challenges. Knowing how to deal with new problems by changing perspective has always guaranteed survival and prosperity. It is therefore very important for our inner balance to train ourselves in mental flexibility. We can do it with a book: rereading the same text years later will give rise to very different sensations and reflections within us. This is because over time, only by living, we enrich ourselves with different visions and often change without even realising it.
We often are at the center of the scene and do not move: we see the world from our height. But seeing things from another angle allows us to discover unexpected nuances. The rules of perspective teach that the world is not unique, that it depends on the point of view. What you are looking at is just one of the many representations of reality.
“Just when you think you know something, you have to look at it in another way.” said John Keating (Robin Williams) in Dead Poets Society (1989).
Banquette Saint-Germain by Fabrice Juan
Snake tile by Casalgrande padana & Atelier(s) Alfonso Femia