Perspective

In these turbulent political times, perspective is major. The 6/9 debate is an example of how two people can look at the same thing and see two different things.

It was a lesson I learned in my late 20s. I was newly divorced and living with my mother and toddler daughter in a North Andover apartment  complex. The buildings were spaced far apart. It was nicely landscaped with lawns, bushes, and trees. A wood bordered it on one side and it was removed from the main road.

One night I had a date with a man, whom I described as coming from the wilds of New Hampshire. As we ate dinner he said, "I don't understand how you can live in a city like this. It's so congested."

A couple of weeks later I had another date with a man who lived in Boston's historic North End where we ate in an Italian restaurant. "I would go crazy living in the country where you live," he said.

What a lesson in perspective. Going back to the 6/9 debate each person is coming from their own experience and point of view and both can be correct as far as they know.

Where they are wrong is instead of thinking there's a 6 or a 9, one of them thinks that the number is a letter or a painting. Knowledge can be limited but reality isn't.