Perception is a picture worth a 1000 thoughts

Art, and life, is all about perceptions. The place we each live in is built from a foundation of how we perceive ourselves as well as the world around us. Our perception determines our perspective. What I perceive as wrong, could be fine with you due to your views, experiences and understanding of the situation or topic. I always want to make sure I stop to consider others when I view a topic that involves someone else. I’ve always taken this concept very seriously – probably more to my own disadvantage. I want to know their story, their reasoning, their experience that has caused them to respond or react as they do. Often times my guess at other’s perceptions causes me to make decisions I wouldn’t necessarily have made if no one else were involved.

In philosophy, psychology, and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information. ~ Wikipedia

I’m always trying to figure out what an other’s perception of a situation is, if my decision is going to directly affect the other person. Why? Because we don’t live in their shoes. We don’t fully understand nor can we ever truly relate to other’s circumstances. The reasons they choose to do something, ignore something, try something or stand for something… we can speculate, but we aren’t them.

Recently I’ve seen a number of conversations happen – each very two sided. This is a common way for a conversation to begin, however, in each situation each side figures they are absolutely right and how can the other be remotely correct. Even reading this now, they probably don’t realize I’m thinking of their conversation as an example. Just because we are absolute in our own view, doesn’t mean it’s right for everyone else. Just because we know something to be true for ourselves, doesn’t mean someone else has the same understanding. Does that make one right and one wrong? Does it mean one party is stupid while the other is brilliant?

Everybody is a genius.  But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid. ~Albert Einstein

I think, coming from my artist frame of mine, everyone has their own view, their own picture they live within. Everyone has their own set of crayons and they are free to color as they like. We can share our pictures and maybe even combine them into a single project. When we start coloring on eachother’s pretty pictures, that’s when we need to come to an agreement. Until then, feel free to scribble in your own space all you want – this is what makes the world such a beautiful place to live!

Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision. ~Stevie Wonder