The lens of our own experience (Changing perspectives)

Seeing the world through the lens of our experiences (changing perspectives)

 

They say, “one year older, one year wiser.” Age grants not only wisdom, but also perspective. Perspective sculpted through our own personal experiences and through the experiences of our peers. There is nothing more invaluable than experience. “A man who never makes a mistake never makes anything.” Through errors and hardships to successes and contentment, we mold our own personal experience. The truth is, all of our experiences color our vision, our lens through which we see the world and what one has felt in the past, what one has dealt with, and what one has overcome or failed to overcome begins to paint our world for us. 

We may be looking for patterns in our life. We learn what to look out for when we open the door in the morning to greet the day. Now, after having noted the effects of experiences, it is important to understand how lack of experience similarly paints the lens through which we view the world. What’s better, much experience or little experience? This question may be answered only by an individual alone. There is no perfect model or answer.

 Those of little experience may be too optimistic in their views, too naive, too unaware to really be able to see the true reality of the world. At times, the eternal optimism may overtake a young mind such that the most innocuous or irrelevant moment becomes one of great wonder and meaning. An example of seeing the world through the lens of lack of experience, parse. Making nothing into something and maybe even making everything into nothing in other circumstances. For those of little experience, perhaps seeing the world as one wants to see it is the default position. There is no alter native, due to the lack of experience and perspective. 

When we see solely what we want to see, we steal away from others their own autonomy, their own free will, their own dreams and desires, their ability to be who they are, as opposed to them being what we color them to be, based on our decided vision of them. 

There is nothing more invaluable than a mind that can see things as they are. A mind that neglects to impose its painted vision onto the subject at hand. A mind that chooses to see only reality. A mind that only compares and contrasts its past experiences to understand the present. 

We see the world through the lens of our experience. Experience is beautiful. Somebody once said that experience is great. However, experience should never take away from reality, such that reality is never given a fighting chance to be as it is.