Give Thanks...Seeing The Good Through The Bad

It's not the best example of perspective...a bit of a stretch, actually. I didn't think about it until I got home and looked at the photos of the sunset I took returning home last week. The sunset looked to be another classic. Of course, you have to see how a sunset turns out. 

Turns out, it was a good one.

As sunsets sometimes do, this one became more stunning as time passed. When possible and whenever it was safe, I snapped a picture from time to time as the colors increased, the light transformed from captivating to breath-taking. Since I wanted to get home, I didn't check the shots I took until I pulled them up from my computer and checked them out.

My favorite shot was not perfect, as far as the qualities that make a good photograph good. The beauty of the sunset can be seen through a dirty car window, the angle of the sun greatly highlighted the dirt. Still...

It was beautiful.

Life is like that. You can use technology to "remove" the dirt, eliminate the bad leaving only the a false presentation of reality. I suppose I could have used some program to show only the incredible sunset. Life, however, has dirt...has problems. The trick is to see through the dirt to the beauty beyond.

I'm thankful I could see the sunset, watch as it developed. I'm thankful that there's dirt because without the dirt, it's harder to appreciate the beauty.

It's All Perspective...

The picture obviously caught my attention--it did what it was designed to do. 

The Click-Bait snagged another viewer.

But, in my defense, the picture was engaging. I mean, what is the thing? Is it a piglet? A rat? Some sort of abnormal creature that is mystifying scientists?

Well, if you can't figure it out, I'll tell you what it is at the end of this post. And when I do, you'll instantly see it and realize it's all about perspective.

Perspective is a funny thing. We hear the term "The New Normal" thrown around all the time. People--most people--would love for their lives to return to the way it was before. But, the life you think you knew was an illusion. Things were never "normal." We get kicked back to reality whenever something happens to us, be it a something big like a new world-wide virus, or something much more localized, like the passing of a loved one. Things that used to make sense no longer do. And we are left wondering about the life we thought we knew.

This event of history we're experiencing now will be studied by economists, sociologists, psychologists, historians, medical professionals, and even politicians and lawyers for decades to come. What we know now will pale in comparison to what we will know later. How does knowledge change our perspective? 

It's fascinating.

Sometimes, we don't realize how much power we have and how things change just by looking at them differently. Case in point, the above picture. Look at it again. Now, tilt your head and look at the picture again. This is not a picture of some disfigured animal, but an adorable chihuahua. What looks like the animal's nose (closest to the camera) is the dog's ear and what looks like an ear (pointing up) is the dog's nose. When we look at things from a different view, so much can change.

It's all perspective.