Perspective

"There once was a man that lived in a village somewhere near the forest.  This village was often a place people would pass through in search of a new place to live.  The man became the leader of the village and all newcomers would talk to him.  One day an elderly couple came to him.
"Sir, what is this village like?  Are the people good people?" the elderly husband asked.
The leader of the village replied, "First let me ask you, what was your previous village like?"
"Oh it was horrible.  The people of Alban were really rude and my neighbors constantly attacked me for no reason.  The pathways were disgusting and the air was always smoky."  said the elderly husband.
"I'm so sorry," the leader sympathized, "but these people are the exact same.  You'd be happier moving on to the next village."  And with that the elderly couple left.
A few days later a young couple with two kids came by and asked the same question.
"First let me ask you," said the leader, "what was your previous village like?"
"Well we come from Alban and it was the most miserable place we've ever been in.  No one was nice and no one had the decency to even welcome us when we moved in.  Our neighbors were loud and obnoxious and the village was a big horror." commented the wife.
"I'm so sorry, but these people are the exact same.  You'd be happier moving on to the next village."  And with that the young family left.
A week later the old man was approached by a businessman.
"Sir, I'm looking for a place to buy and would like to know what this village is like" said the businessman.
"First let me ask you, what was your previous village like?" asked the leader.
"Oh Alban was the best village I ever lived in!  Everyone was generous and kind.  The village was beautiful and smelled fresh every day.  I will miss the dear people of Alban very much."
"Sir," the leader said "these people are the exact same.  I suspect you will love our village very much"
The businessman moved to the village the next week."

I'm grateful for perspective.  There are always so many sides to a story someone is telling.  It's hard to tell who's exaggerating and who's not.  It's important to have perspective in life.  There are so many different ways to have perspective, but I'm talking about the kind of perspective that allows you to see through someone elses eyes and understand the things they do.  The perspective that allows you to grin and bare it when someone steals your money, thinking they might need it more.  And if it was out of plain greed, what drove that greed?  Perspective that makes you resist honking at another driver that just cut you off; because maybe they just found out their spouse was in a terrible accident and dying in the hospital at that moment.  You never really know what a stranger is going through.  Give them the benefit of the doubt.  Have the perspective that doesn't focus on negative, but on positive.  Like the short story above.  All three people the leader spoke to were from the same village.  Two chose to be negative and were miserable.  One chose to have perspective and instead of jumping to conclusions, got to know the people and why they weren't as warm at first.  That one was the happy one in life.

I've learned a lot about perspective the past few weeks.  It sometimes sucks being taught a lesson because it can be humiliating and force you to swallow some pride.  But after the lesson is learned it feels so great.  I know I'll have to learn this perspective lesson again and I'm fine with that, but for now I'm grateful for the perspective so I can better understand people.