It's All Relative

"We don't see things as they are,
we see them as we are." - Anaïs Nin

Relativity - M.C. Escher, woodcut, July 1953

Artists have been playing with perspective since Leonardo da Vinci painted "The Last Supper" in 1498. In fact, the word "perspective" was coined in the Middle Ages, from Medieval Latin perspectīva ars the science of optics, from Latin perspicere to inspect carefully, from per- (intensive) + specere to behold].

I think all of that means "the way we look at things."

I'm going to make a confession here. I'm a romantic. On top of that, I'm an optimist.  Rose colored glasses are my favorite accessory.

Hello. My name is Pollyanna and I'm an optimistic romantic.

That's not the only confession I have to make. My daughter has encouraged me to come clean about a certain post I wrote about Valentine's Day. (If you missed it, shame on you...you can read it HERE.)

It's not that I lied or anything. It's just that I wrote the post only from my perspective. That's allowed, isn't it? I mean, it is my blog, right? I just sort of romanticized the day a little. Okay, maybe a lot.

At any rate, during my conversation with The Graceful One about our Valentine's Day activities, I told her about the lovely walk her father and I had taken at the park that afternoon  Only I gave her a bit of a different picture than the one I painted for you. She laughed at me as only a daughter can, and I could see her shaking her head at me, head bowed, snickering to herself, all the way from Portland.

In the blog post, I told the absolute truth about our walk. Honestly, I did. I just left out half the perspective. Being the optimistic romantic Pollyanna that I am, I didn't want to include, shall we say, the "other" half of the dialogue.

Let's just say I did it to protect the innocent...or the guilty, you decide. Here's what really happened on the walk around the park that fine Valentine's Day:

We started down the path toward the pond...

[me] Isn't it beautiful out today?

[him] Jeeze, it's freezing out here.

[me] There's a nice breeze.
[him] It's freezing.

We walked to the new Big Red Barn.

I took out my camera to take its picture.

[me] Oh, just a sec, I'm taking a picture of this.
[him] Ow. What's wrong with my ankle?

Walking farther, passing the pond...

 [me] Look--there are the Black Locust trees.

They'll be so gorgeous in late spring.

[him] Look at my ankle. What's wrong with it?

[LONG LONG PAUSE]

[me] Look up at the sky instead. Isn't it beautiful?

[him] I knew I should have brought my sunglasses.

 Now approaching the far end of the park...

[me] The birds are calling all over the place...wow.

[him] That's the third siren I've heard today.

That can't be good.

 Up and down the gentle hills we stride...

[me] It feels so good to breathe in this fresh air.

[him] I can't believe I'm so out of shape.

A little further along...

[me] snap, snap, snapping pics

[him] Great, now my leg is cramping.

[me] WOULD YOU PLEASE STOP THAT?!

[him] What? I'm just trying to keep up my end of the conversation.

As Paul Harvey would say, "Now you know--the rest of the story."

We all have our own perspective in life. Do we choose this perspective, or are we born with it?

I have no doubt that my unerring optimism is every bit as annoying to the Titan of Industry as his unerring negativism is to me. Is one perspective more "right" than another?

The Graceful One evidently leaked the truth of the day to her fellow dancer and friend, Mary (who had commented that she liked the blog post). Mary reportedly laughed, then shrugged and said, "Every couple needs a little yin and yang."

That's it, isn't it? Adding another perspective to our own only helps to complete the picture, deepens it and gives it dimension. More perspectives, more depth and dimension.

The way I figure, you either end up with a masterpiece like DaVinci's " Last Supper" or you end up with a crazy M.C. Escher woodcut.

With my husband, it's all 'relative'.

Today, I hope you keep things in perspective.

P.S. I went for a nice long walk yesterday. I wore my rose colored sunglasses and had a perfectly lovely stroll. Alone.