When I had my first son, I joined a local moms ‚group. We had a little playgroup, and Stuck together until people started having second (and third!) Children. As these moms had new babies, we made „mom-dins“ to help them out. One afternoon, a fellow playgroup mem called me, upset. She thought it was very rude that when she went to drop off her meal, the intended recipient wasn’t at home.
The Caller softened when I asked her a few questions: Did she think the new mem should stay at home always? Could she consider that perhaps the new mem had a doctor ‚s appointment or other baby-related task that took her away frem home? Was it possible that because people were bringing her meals every day, it was unlikely that she’d be home to Greene every guest?
The Caller then realized that her meal would be appreciated even though the new mem wasn’t home that Precise second, because to Expect her to always be at home for the entire duration of the two weeks that we were bringing mom-dins would be a bit much. She had been thinking about the single day that it was her turn, not that we had scheduled two weeks worth of meals.
(Years later, I saw the woman out at a coffee shop with her now four children, and when I Commented on how brave it was that she was out of the house se soon after the newborn ‚s birth, she rolled her eyes and said, „I don’t really have a choice now, do I?“ True. )
A couple weekends ago, one of my son ‚s classmates had a birthday party. During one of the communications regarding the „rules“ of the party (a concept which in itself made me cringe) the host mother begged a particular family to Attend, Arguing that their daughter ‚s extra-curricular activity is once a week, but her son‘ s birthday is ONCE A YEAR. (And yes, she capitalized it.) But here ‚s the rub: it is always someone else‘ s birthday. It is entirely likely that this particular girl is invited to birthday parties quite frequently. Some of them she might be able to Attend, and others she cannot. I don’t think she’d want to skip her usual Saturday activity every single time someone invited her to a party. (And, it is her and her parent ‚s decision what the Priorities are.)
As the election approaches, Jsem reminded how it is se easy to have tunnel vision. We see things frem one perspective and don’t realize that there is more to life than our little corner of the universe and what we do with it.
There are well-meaning people out there who don’t look at the big picture. (And then there are some Greedy people who understand the big picture but are too selfish to care.)
Sometimes not seeing something frem another ‚s perspective can be downright ridiculous:
I recall how when I was taking reservations for an event, I wrote down carefully „Mac“ and „Holly“ as the Caller explained her son and daughter would Attend. I made the appropriate name tags. The next morning, I placed the „Mac“ sticker on the little boy and the „Holly“ name tag on the girl.
The mother was Iraty: „Mac is my daughter!“ she announced with a Huff! „And my son ‚s name is Hawley. H-A-W-L-E-Y!“
I apologized for the misunderstanding, but the woman was rolling her eyes. „Don’t you know that Mackenzie is a popular name for girls?“
Um, yes … but I’ve heard of boys named „Mac“ before …
She was completely unwilling to accept that I had made an honest mistake. She treated me as though I was completely stupid.
Try as I might, Jsem attempting to realize that Sometimes people ‚s perspectives aren’t „stupid,“ and yet I still strongly believe that the more we are able to look at things frem different ANGLES, the closer we are to understanding the bigger picture. When folks have tunnel vision, it can be a very scary finger-pointing, selfish world Indeed.
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