Perspectives
It's all about perspectives. Very rarely do people get or take the chance to see the story from the other perspective. The accumulation of all your surroundings, what you've heard, what you've learnt, and what you've been told all mold your vision of the world. Your ideas of what is right, what is wrong, what is just, and what is evil all come from the same ingredients - the environment in which we live in.
Stepping outside that environment, you begin to see how much your ideas, your values, your definition on good vs bad, right vs wrong are put to the test. We see our thoughts become an accumulation of the subjective. And we are all creatures of habit. We find something that works, and stick with it.
I am struggling to find my own ideas of objectivity, wondering if they even exist at all. I'm using a map with no roads, no directions, no legend. But if you don't know where you are going, any way will take you there.
I remember the first time I thought of all this nonsense. Bits and pieces of it were filtering through my mind, but I was never able to put it together into some sort of semi-focused idea.
It happened my first day in Kuala Lumpur, Malayasia over a year and a half ago. I've always remembered a joke Jerry Sienfeld would tell, about the Chinese and their use of chopsticks:
I'll tell you what I like about Chinese people. They're hanging in there with the chopsticks, aren't they? You know they've seen the fork. They're staying with the sticks. I don't know how they missed it. Chinese farmer gets up, works in the field with a shovel all day. Shovel. Spoon. Come on. You're not plowing 40 acres with a couple of pool cues!
First time I heard this I thought it was funny, but interestingly true - Why do they continue using chopsticks? Forks are so much easier, aren't they?
But then eating my vege curry in this Indian restaurant, I noticed there was no cutlery. No chopsticks even. Everyone was using their hands, eating the rice and veges off their banana leaf plate. I thought this was bizarre and messy - but I did it anyways. When in Rome....
By the time my next serving came around, you get the hang of it. Seinfeld's joke came to mind right away and these thoughts began to pour in. Here we are joking about the Chinese and their chopsticks. Yet I'm sure their are plenty of people who laugh at us Westerner's for using cutlery.
'But they have perfectly good hands' Jerrydeep Seinfeldpor is telling a crowd, somewhere in Bombay at this very moment.
It's all about perspective.
Stepping outside that environment, you begin to see how much your ideas, your values, your definition on good vs bad, right vs wrong are put to the test. We see our thoughts become an accumulation of the subjective. And we are all creatures of habit. We find something that works, and stick with it.
I am struggling to find my own ideas of objectivity, wondering if they even exist at all. I'm using a map with no roads, no directions, no legend. But if you don't know where you are going, any way will take you there.
I remember the first time I thought of all this nonsense. Bits and pieces of it were filtering through my mind, but I was never able to put it together into some sort of semi-focused idea.
It happened my first day in Kuala Lumpur, Malayasia over a year and a half ago. I've always remembered a joke Jerry Sienfeld would tell, about the Chinese and their use of chopsticks:
I'll tell you what I like about Chinese people. They're hanging in there with the chopsticks, aren't they? You know they've seen the fork. They're staying with the sticks. I don't know how they missed it. Chinese farmer gets up, works in the field with a shovel all day. Shovel. Spoon. Come on. You're not plowing 40 acres with a couple of pool cues!
First time I heard this I thought it was funny, but interestingly true - Why do they continue using chopsticks? Forks are so much easier, aren't they?
But then eating my vege curry in this Indian restaurant, I noticed there was no cutlery. No chopsticks even. Everyone was using their hands, eating the rice and veges off their banana leaf plate. I thought this was bizarre and messy - but I did it anyways. When in Rome....
By the time my next serving came around, you get the hang of it. Seinfeld's joke came to mind right away and these thoughts began to pour in. Here we are joking about the Chinese and their chopsticks. Yet I'm sure their are plenty of people who laugh at us Westerner's for using cutlery.
'But they have perfectly good hands' Jerrydeep Seinfeldpor is telling a crowd, somewhere in Bombay at this very moment.
It's all about perspective.
posted by Matt Switzer at 10:01 AM
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