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You might be wondering why I start all my posts with “My”.  Perspective is such a subtle concept and we rarely think about it.  But it’s how we see the world.  It shapes our opinions and ideas.  We know that if we were born in another time or another place, our perspective would be extremely different.  Even so, we usually trust our perspective and don’t think much about questioning it.

My view

Perspective is not only shaped by where we live, our experiences, or religion, our economic standing, etc.  It’s also shaped by our personality types.  I’ve mentioned before that I’m an INTJ on the Myer’s-Briggs typology tests.  If I was a different type, I’d have a different perspective.  One of the cornerstones of INTJ thinking is, “how does it work?”  We want to know how things work so we can test them, improve on them, and fix them if they break.  This isn’t isolated to objects, but can apply to ideas, workflows, and just about anything.

One of the TED talks I watched recently (see below), given by Seth Godin, appeals strongly to my personality type.  Seth is the creator of a website called This is Broken.   Seth takes the word ‘broken’ to a whole new level.  He breaks it down into reasons why we see things as broken.  For instance, ‘It’s broken on purpose’.  Maybe it wasn’t intended for you, but for someone who needs that specific information or device.  From your perspective, it’s broken, but from the intended audience’s perspective, it’s exactly what they need.  There are a bunch more reasons and some fantastic examples in the video below.

Your view, our view

I write from my perspective because it is the only one I understand well enough to explain.  Maybe you see things differently, that’s your perspective.  But maybe you and I talk about it and we both begin to see things differently… then it becomes our perspective.  This is a concept with wide applications.  I hope that as I grow as a person, and as I get to know my readers, I can start sharing from different perspectives.

My Bible story

The Bible is a good example of the spread of perspective through a widely read book.  Imagine the centuries it’s taken to circumvent the globe.  Now imagine if the story of Jesus just happened, in our times.  It would be a very different story, but something that, maybe, we could more easily understand and relate to.

Say John decides he’s gonna make a documentary.  It becomes about his uncle Ted, who meets this couple that was evacuated due to an incoming hurricane. Ted is a farmer in the USA, in the state of Georgia.  He’s minding his own business, when one night this couple shows up at his door, begging for help.  John is there with his camera.  He zooms in on their license plate, which verifies that they come from an area that’s about to be hit by the hurricane.  They explain how they tried to get into all the hotels for miles, ran out of money, and eventually ran out of gas on the road leading to Uncle Ted’s house.

Ted is a good man.  He wants to keep his family safe and he doesn’t trust these strangers enough to bring them into his home.  But he sees the woman is pregnant, and they appear to be genuine and in need.  Ted offers them the use of his shed for the night.  It’s not much, but it’s shelter.  He brings them blankets and pillows from the house, food, a bit of gasoline and a few dollars to help them on their way in the morning.  The woman, Mary, ends up giving birth overnight… the rest of the documentary is about the child and family’s experiences through John and his Uncle Ted’s perspective.  For some reason, in my head, Uncle Ted looks suspiciously like Santa…

I believe this documentary would quickly go viral.  Especially the part where Jesus goes into the New York Stock Exchange.  I’ve included a fantastic Facebook video below that inspired this idea.  It’s a great Christmas story that is easy to relate to because it’s in the context of our society today.

RELATED RESOURCES:

The is a cute, short video about how it may go if Mary was to inform Joseph about being pregnant using the technologies of today. I can’t figure out how to add it on this site, so I’ll add it to my Facebook page here.

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This is broken: Seth Godin at Gel 2006 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

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A description is below, this inspired me because it’s a fantastic and positive method that applies to changing our perspective.  Watching this video will completely change your perspective on going to Best Buy, especially when you see the employees in their khakis and blue shirts.

Charlie Todd: The shared experience of absurdity (via TED Talks) - Charlie Todd causes bizarre, hilarious, and unexpected public scenes: Seventy synchronized dancers in storefront windows, “ghostbusters” running through the New York Public Library, and the annual no-pants subway ride. At TEDxBloomington he shows how his group, Improv Everywhere, uses these scenes to bring people together.