Who's Shoes to Wear?

Our perspective is vital to us but also easy to get trapped, become trapped in one power of focus and miss out on all the other angles from which to see things. In a way, we know we do it. We know that we decided to only view things from one perspective. In a way, it is necessary to maintain a focus to stay headed in one direction. The cliché about walking in someone else’s shoes or the phrase “if I were you” get at the idea that we don’t see things the way they truly are but the way that we want to see them. It’s fine to not consider other perspectives if the one we have is right, but what if it is wrong? It’s fine to live most of the time from one perspective, but it should be a decision to live in that perspective. It’s important to think about the shoes we are in, and the shoes that others are in. Important to know and understand why we do things that we do and why people do the things that they do. It will help make a lot of sense out of things that would otherwise make no sense at all and also help us to relate to and understand other people.

So, there is a balance between walking in the shoes that you are in, and considering what it is like to walk in the shoes of others as well. We can become hostages to thoughtlessness if we do not consider the thoughts, lives, and actions of others. But, we can also become distracted and unfocused in life if we only consider others and what they would do. It’s another one of life’s balances. It seems that so much of life is learning to maintain a balance of two opposite things for which the middle between them is the ideal.