The Reboot Generation

Take Pen to Paper: Edition 103

Sep 12, 2024

Hi Friends,

I’ve written about perspective several times, including two years ago in Take Pen to Paper’s Edition 5 and this past spring in Edition 76.

The other day, an experience in my household revealed three different perspectives.

In this newsletter:

How your perspectives come to be.
No two of us think alike.
Same household, three perspectives

The Make-Up of Your Perspective

So much goes into our perspective of the world. Factors include, but are not limited to, personal experience, demographics (age, race, culture, ethnicity, etc.), and economic and social characteristics.

It’s easier to say no two people will have the same perspective.

We may have similar perspectives because we were raised in the same family or we chose to be with people like us, but the same perspective is unlikely because we experience life as individuals.

My sister and I are a year apart in age. Between home and 15 years of school (through college), we spent a lot of time together. We have different perspectives of the world.

My husband and I have been married for 42 years. We have similar backgrounds and upbringings. Although we spend a lot of time together, we have different perspectives of the world.

There are too many variables in life for our perspectives to be the same.

The More Variables, The More Perspectives

This spring, my high school class is having a combined 50th reunion with my sister’s class.

My sister and I spent three years in high school together. At the time it was a small high school: I graduated with 100 other students. We had the same friends and teachers. We took the same classes, and participated in many of the same extra-curricula activities.

When I look at the comments on the reunion webpage, including my sister’s, I think, “Did I go to this school?” I’m sure memories play a part in my question, which I wrote about in Take Pen to Paper, Edition 83, but it’s also perspective.

Although I had many of the same experiences, all of the other variables kick in to change my perspective of my high school years.

I saw an Instagram that made me think about how the variations in a generation’s experiences contribute to our perspective. Benjamin Herzberg jokes in an Instagram post about creating an escape room for his children with a rotary phone, analog TV, remote control and escape directions written in cursive. You can see it here: The Escape Room. It made me chuckle and think how we can benefit from other’s perspective, if we have them.

One House, One Experience, Three Perspectives

There is one scale in our house. It’s in the master bath.

I weight daily, my husband occasionally, and my son weekly. My son and I have exercise routines. We are conscious of our eating habits. My husband is for the most part an innocent bystander of our habits and benefits from the diet I organize for the family.

One morning, my husband informed me he needed to go back to eating oatmeal for breakfast. His weight was up a few pounds.

Then, my son told me the scale needed new batteries. There was no way he could have gained so much weight in a week.

With the new knowledge gained in my online nutrition and strength training class, I assured my son it was fine. I had also gained some weight, but that’s not all that counts. You must consider your measurements. The weight could be muscle. My measurements hadn’t changed. In fact, I had lost a few centimeters.

Same scales, same issues, three different ideas on why we all “gained weight” because we each brought a different perspective to the experience.

I was sure I was right. However, I empowered my son to change the battery since I couldn’t remember when I last did.

I’m happy to report that we are all back to our previous weight. My son was right. The scale needed new batteries.

The one who grew up with “when all else fails, reboot” had the right idea - this time.

It’s so easy to fall back on what we know, what experience has taught us, and what we have grown up with. Our default action is to rely on our perspective. However, it stands to reason that the more perspectives we have available to a situation, the better we will understand the total picture.

Practicing the skills of tomorrow. Photo by S.G.S. Abel

7 Days, 7 Thoughts on Gratitude and Good

I am grateful for understanding that no two of us will have the same perspective. 🙃🙂
Did you know that perspective-taking is a social-emotional skill and a key component of empathy? It can be practiced and learned.
This article tells three tips for learning how to take another person’s perspective.
Reading biographies, memoirs, and fiction can teach us to see other people’s perspectives and develop empathy.
I’ve been reading, Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, And Five Hundred Miles Across Spain by Andrew McCarthy. Part travelogue, part memoir, the book illustrates both the perspective of the father and son. 📖
It’s good that my perspective differs from my children’s and grandchildren's. I learn something new most days.
For fun, here is an artist who draws his interpretation of the clouds each day. ⛅

Thank you for reading. Take some time to open yourself up to someone else's perspective this week.

Until next time,

💚

Susan

Who do you call on when you need a different perspective? Leave a comment and let me know. I would love to read about it.

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