Depth

I had an epiphany yesterday while listening to a lecture from my leadership class on Coursera. He was talking about seeing things from other people's point of view and it hit me.

You know how your eyes work? You see one picture with one eye and another with the other eye and your brain puts them together as one and gives us depth. It similar with different people's point of view. Everyone has their own point of view, how they see the world, and it is influenced by the way they were raised, their education, their culture, etc. Each person's view is completely valid and real to them. They each have something to add.

So I have my point of view and if I reach out and validate another persons point of view, my brain combines the two into one picture and I have a depth of understanding in this world. The more people you connect with and reach out to understand, the deeper your understanding goes.

Just like your eyes, even people who live and operate very close to you have a slightly different take on things that, if you connect with them, can change your depth perception of reality.

If more people could come to the realization that everyone has their own story to tell and that everyone has their very own point of view that is completely real, valid, and influences their decisions, there would be a lot more peace in this world.

More from "On Liberty"

I got this quote this morning. It's one that brings me comfort, knowing that the struggles we have today are essentially no different than those humans have been working over for thousands of years.

"...in the United States - the feeling of the majority, to whom any appearance of a more showy or costly style of living than they can hope to rival is disagreeable, operates as a tolerably effectual sumptuary law, and that in many parts of the Union it is really difficult for a person possessing a very large income to find any mode of spending it which will not incur popular disapprobation."

"It is know that the bad workman who form the majority of the operatives in many branches of industry, are decidedly of opinion that bad workmen ought to receive the same wages as good, and that no one ought to be allowed, through piecework or otherwise, to earn by superior skill or industry more than others can without it."

Jude

"But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed." 1:10

Instincts are not always positive. We were given reason for a purpose. I believe it, our free will, is what makes us "in the image of God".

"Zorba the Greek" by Nikos Kazantzakis

I had to get the book after he last time I watched the movie. It's one of our favorite movies and I've seen it several times. There are scenes that I don't understand though. It's like there is information missing, like maybe the director thought it would be understood and just skipped it. So I thought the book would shed some light on those scenes. It didn't. Maybe I'm just not understanding the culture that they are in.

It was still a great book though. I think I may have liked the book more because of the movie. How's that? Usually you read a book and then see the movie and think, "WHAT?!" but to me, the movie was just like book. I'm not sure if it's because I saw the movie first or what. There were no big scenes or themes left out of the movie. There were some omissions, but they didn't change the story. I liked the way the movie ended better than the book. The book goes on after they part ways in Crete and it made me sad.

I didn't understand the story teller's obsession with Buddha. I thought he was a Christian, but he writes a lot about getting through what Buddha wants from him. I loved Zorba's lust for life and wondered if he were entirely sane. The book gives reasons why he comes off that way at times.

There were little lines that I loved, like this one, "God changes his appearance every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises." and "You understand! and that's why you'll never have any peace. If you didn't understand, you'd be happy! What d'you lack? You're young, you have money, health, you're a good fellow, you lack nothing. Nothing, by thunder! Except just one thing - folly! And when that's missing, boss, well..."

I think I like this...

I'm really enjoying this book, "On Liberty". Usually I wait to post about the whole book at once when I finish it, but these little gems keep coming up and I think it would take too long to write one big post, so I'm posting as they come up.

Here's one from today.

"But independence of action, and disregard of custom, are not solely deserving of encouragement for the chance they afford that better modes action, and customs more worthy of general adoption, may be struck out; nor is it only persons of decided mental superiority who have a just claim to carry on their lives in their own way. "

Everyone deserves to live and make choices as they see fit, regardless of their position in society. I'm not sure Mill really believed that though, but maybe he did when he wrote this and changed his mind later in life. I'm going to take it as it is here though.

I grow weary sometimes of people who believe some people can home school but some should not. I'd rather encourage everyone to educate themselves and their own children, regardless of where they stand right now. Some people should be able to choose where they live and what to eat, but some just don't have the capacity to make the "right" choices. There are no right choices.

"The spirit of improvement is not always a spirit of liberty, for it may aim at forcing improvements on an unwilling people; and the spirit of liberty, in so far as it resists such attempts, may ally itself locally and temporarily with the opponents of improvement; but the only unfailing and permanent source of improvement is liberty, since by it there are as many possible independent centers of improvement as there are individuals."

Some believe that if we only had this style of government or another, then everything would be good, everyone would have what they need. That just isn't true. People who believe that the most liberty is best, don't believe that if we each had maximum liberty then we would be living Nirvana. We believe that if we have the highest individual liberty possible, then we each have a higher chance of making the right choices for our own person at the right time for us. No one knows me and my needs better than I do. And no one is more responsible for my decisions than I am.

3 John

Another very short one! Here's something I found interesting, "I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say." 1:9

Funny to think of the early church arguing among themselves about what they should or should not do.

2 John

I found a nice commentary here.

This is one of those short books that I wonder about. Why was this letter so important to have in the canon? Who was it to and why?

From the commentary linked above I found this, "family imagery also underscores that it was not by the children's initiative that this family came into existence."

How's that for an image? Many of the parenting principles that I've used with my children are based on that very idea. These children did not ask to be here. They were brought into this world by us and we are charged with caring for them and helping them be what they want to be until they are capable of striking out on their own.

In a similar way, we did not ask to become God's children. He created us and is there to support, guide, and love us on our path. I love that image of God. He could have created beings that would automatically worship Him and do everything He told them to do. We can't create children like that, although current parenting philosophy tends to treat children as if we can. God created us "in His image" and I believe that our free will is what makes us like Him.

I'm just loving the analogy and having a hard time putting what I'm feeling and thinking into words best to describe it to others.