I confess, I will read the collections of stories about, for instance, the worst customer a food-service employee ever had. Then I’ll read one about the worst service anyone ever got from a waiter or waitress. And I find myself wondering, maybe these are just the same stories told from two different perspectives. Maybe they are equally insensitive, equally impatient, equally self-involved.
There is always another side to the story.
I’m pretty sure I lost my reading glasses this week while running through a parking lot in the rain. Anyway, I had the glasses, then I ran through the rain, then at some point later I didn’t have my glasses. Such things happen, I suppose. And as long as I can get an article out of it, I suppose I can survive.
From a distance, my lawn looks great. Up close, my lawn looks terrible. Both perspectives are unfair, I think. It is self-serving and lazy to imagine that a quick glance from the street is how best to measure the quality of my work. It is self-defeating and depressing to hover over each blade of grass (or weed, or dead spot) and wonder what I did so horribly wrong as to bring on this tragedy.
Perspective makes all the difference. You’re either a hero or a goat, a genius or an idiot. Both perspectives are true, and both are lies.
Is the holiday season getting you down? I mean, even more “down” than normal? Do you instinctively head for the firearms section in your local Walmart when you hear yet another Christmas carol slaughtered by some boy band or country crooner? Be of good cheer, citizen — there are a variety of remedies on the market.
