SIX. NINE. EITHER, NEITHER OR BOTH

Hello you,

Today we shall review the popular story about perspective.

This story starts with a number. You may call it 6 but I’ll call it 9.

So, someone picks up a colored chalk and draws a large one-digit figure on a tarred crossroad in his estate and walks away.

Mr. A comes out of his house and sees the number written on the ground and rushes back in to place a phone call. He dials the number of his friend (Mr. B) who lives opposite his apartments and beckons on him to step out of his house and look at what he saw on the crossroad.

Mr. B says  

“Hey, who wrote a “9” on the road?”

Mr. A replies

“No, it’s “6”, can’t you see it?”

This banter goes on for a while till an “alleged” old wise man walks by and settles their argument by saying, no one is really right or wrong, they both have to step out of their houses and see from the other person’s perspective. This made them understand that everyone can be right from his own view.

And the story usually ends there.

But it shouldn’t, you know.

Because we have ignored a very vital constant in this equation, which is the person that wrote the figure.

Let me go ahead to say this before moving on.

Communication is not complete if the person being communicated to does not understand what is being said.

Now the story continues…..

It is very important to wait for Mr. Figurine (the person that wrote the figure) to come back home and tell them what he wrote.

Did he write 9 or 6?

His answer now determines the next move.

This doesn’t make Mr. A or Mr. B the winner of the argument but it gives clarity and accuracy on what the writer was trying to communicate to his audience.

So before we go about having perspectives about life and the principles that govern it, let us first ask ourselves this questions.

Who is the author?

What is his point of view?

What was he trying to communicate to us?

Until we get these answers, nobody’s perspective is correct.

And after we get the answers, nobody won the argument, we just gained clarity.

A dear friend once said and I quote.

No matter how much one tends to know (have knowledge), his knowledge is infinitesimal compared to what there is to be known in the universe aka nobody knows it all. And to say you know is to acknowledge that you don’t know everything.

 

Even the wise Solomon said, “….of making many books, there is no end”. This means that knowledge is infinite. It is inexhaustible.

In summary, we should keep an open mind in the search for knowledge from the author and not just dwell on our perspective as ultimate.

Love, Deedee

XOXO