Sam and Maria.

I clearly remember this event” I was five years old and standing at the door of the elevator in the apartment complex where I lived. Standing next to me was the mother of some of my friends, she was pregnant at the time. I so distinctly remember looking at her, she was tall, very tall, her hair was bright red, and her belly was enormous!

At that moment I tucked away a few facts in my memory: This lady was very tall, and when she was pregnant she looked like she was going to explode.

Over 20 years later I met this lady again, and as it turns out, she’s shorter than me, so I’m guessing she doesn’t explode when pregnant either. Odd as it may sound, this experience was a turning point for me.

I simply realized how so often my perspective or stance on something may be rooted in a perception I had before I had the understanding that I do now. And in the future I may say the same thing.

When I examine something, I usually examine it through the data I have stored up on it, which may come from way back, be majorly influenced by some emotion, or anchored to an experience I had before.

Understanding this about myself has helped me to be more willing to seek out new fact and reexamine perspectives and issues that I felt I had a solid stance on before. It has made me want to draw my information from a much larger pool, fed by varying sources.

Understanding this about others has helped me to understand that people often come at something from the perspective of their history. You have to win their trust for the future, and then they are willing to let go of their past, or at least not use it as the yardstick for the future.