Perspective is an intriguing thing. A few days ago when it rained continually for a couple of days, while inconvenient and definitely damp, it wasn’t a big issue for us. When you have a month, what’s a couple of days of rain? However for those who had one weeks holiday between Christmas and New Year it was a different matter. Many muttered about packing up and going home. The rain was for them disappointing to say the least.
If I imagine a giant beachball, with the usual different coloured wedge shapes, and myself as a tiny Lego person standing dwarfed by it, then all I can see of the beachball is the yellow wedge, maybe a little of the green beside it. I have no knowledge or experience of the blue and orange wedge on the other side. My perspective is limited. (I am a white, middleclass, educated woman living in the 21st Century – that in itself is a huge influence on what I ‘see’) It would be erroneous to assume my perspective (yellow wedge) is the only one there is, or that it is the best/correct colour. How often do you hear the words, “Yes, but the reality is….” In other words, one person’s perspective is different from another’s.
It is easy when making decisions (from something as simple as will I do the dishes even if it isn’t my turn? to will I change jobs?) to do so on the basis of a singular perspective; after all it is all we know. Our perspective and experience also gives rise to certain feelings which can be powerful influencers in decision making. Colin and I have pondered this dilemma and questions around perspective and ‘reality’. A lot of our poor decisions have been based on a singular perspective or reaction to strong emotions. It seems to us (at the moment – this perspective will most likely change with greater experience!!) that if we can take into consideration multiple perspectives, can acknowledge our feelings and express them authentically and appropriately (they may influence the final decision or not) then we are well on the way to better choices and decision making, ie living.
However another question arises, if there are multiple perspectives and my feelings arise from my present and past experiences then on what basis do I make a choice or decision. Perhaps this is where values and principles came to the fore. I need to make a decision that is in keeping with what I value – this may be religious/spiritual in nature and it may not. It doesn’t really matter, whether we are conscious of it or not, we all live on the basis of values/beliefs.
Yurting is a conscious and purposeful attempt to experience another reality, to open ourselves to other perspectives on life and living. Our urban life is simply one way of living, it has its benefits and its drawbacks. Yurting is an experiment with perspective and ‘reality’. However, you don’t have to ‘go away’ to do this. Last year, the whole of the year, we pondered, wondered and attempted to live out the questions we had around perspective and reality and we discovered and are still in the process of discovering many things. As I consider a New Year and a new decade I am excited by the continued journey to discover, experience and perhaps understand the nature of ‘reality’