It's All Relative

The world as seen through our own eyes reflects the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

After working all week manufacturing a log kit for our next project, my friend invited me to go fishing. We packed, hooked the boat trailer to the pickup truck and began driving to our destination, the Kenai River on the beautiful Kenai Peninsula in Alaska.

Two hours into the four hour trip we came to a complete standstill in traffic. We grumbled, moaned, waited and waited. We waited for 4 hours hearing bits and pieces about an accident that had closed the highway indefinitely. As it was late, we decided to roll out our sleeping bags and get some sleep until traffic started moving. Others found this a great opportunity to break out the booze and start the weekend rolling, resulting in little sleep on our part.The highway reopened at about 3am and we finally resumed our journey.

The fishing was fantastic, making up for our inconvenient night of interrupted travel and sleep. We caught enough sockeye salmon to fill both our freezers with, in my opinion, the best fish in the world.

After returning home, completely worn out, we learned about the accident. Turns out there were two separate accidents, in one of which a man and his wife on a motorcycle were killed, in the other two small children died. What utter devastation to these two families!

After feeling very small and petty for my grumblings during that long night, my thoughts turned to how our circumstances seem to dictate how we see and interact with the world. A person living in a nomadic, tribal culture and someone living in a high-rise in New York City will have a much different definition of "home". We seem to think that everyone is the same because our neighbors tend to live in the same culture and circumstances as we do.

Before we judge others, we should stop ourselves, realizing that we do not see the world from their eyes. We cannot understand others until we have lived their lives.

One way we can increase our understanding is to read and study literature from around the world. This gives us a small glimpse into the culture of those around us, helping us see the world from their eyes. As the proverb says, before you criticize someone ,first walk a mile in their shoes.

Just a thought from the chainsaw carpenter.