Because I’m a writer, I think a lot about point of view in the literature sense, but I also think it’s germane to real life.
The definition is: “The perspective from which a speaker or writer recounts a narrative or presents information.”
A child’s point of view
Children have a limited perspective. They think mothers are supposed to be like their mother–whether their mother is a good mother or not.
A Lamaze teacher liberated me from unrealistic expectations when she said,
“You’re the child’s parent. Raise them the way you want to. If you don’t feel like giving them a bath every night, don’t bother. The child will never know they’re ‘supposed’ to get a bath every night.”
Wow. What a concept. I determined what “reality” was for my family.
A different sense of compassion and empathy
Understanding a different person’s reasons for believing something (one of the reasons for reading literature) enables us to develop compassion and empathy.
Back in the dark ages when I trained to be a reporter, I learned all of us have biases.
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Our personal perspective determines how we think about and look at events.
But a good reporter needed to “turn the prism,” on their personal point of view to grasp both sides of a story.
I was taught you did not have to agree with both sides of a story (how could you?), but you needed to be able to respectfully articulate both sides to present a reasonable newspaper story.
The goal was to be as impartial as possible in telling the story so the reader could reach their own conclusions (which, of course, would be slanted by their personal point of view).
I’ve taken that training into my real life and I often find myself looking for the alternate responses to events or reactions.
It’s helped me in my writing (where you have to stay in one point of view in each scene so as to not confuse the reader) and in raising my children.
If I didn’t understand why they behaved a certain way, I’d stop and try to envision the circumstances from their limited-life-experience point of view.
It was very helpful, even if I didn’t change my mind.
Other needed reasons for different points of view
Recognizing different points of view helps in political settings, in social circumstances, and marriage.
(Author Larry Burkett famously said, “opposites usually attract in marriage and that’s a good thing. If you both thought and acted the same, one of you would be superfluous.”)
It’s smoothed the way when I realize a challenging individual may not be vexing on purpose, they just might be operating from a skewed point of view.
What tricks do you use to understand someone else’s point of view?
Tweetables
How to see beyond your biases. Click to Tweet
How your point of view reflects real life. Click to Tweet
If you both thought the same, one of you would be superfluous. Click to Tweet
A very thought provoking and important post, Michelle. When we look at things from only our own point of view we become very limited in our thinking. When we begin to examine life from the point of view of others, we expand our capacity for communicating with and understanding others. As a pastor I always try to look at a situation from the other person’s point of view, right or wrong, it is still very important to them. At the end of the day the most important point of view is Jesus’. Wouldn’t it be great if we always looked at life through His eyes?
Excellent point, Jim. If we all looked at the world through Jesus’ eyes, everyone would be better off!
I enjoyed reading your thoughts on point of view and perspective. Everyone does see from a different point of view because God made us to be individuals. We can try to see things by “walking a mile in another’s shoes,” but that is good only for that time period and does not replace the previous experiences that taint the understanding of a new perspective.
When we become Christian we are receiving a new point of view that evolves with Bible study, prayer and time spent with more mature Christians. Being human and on this side of heaven, we will not have the absolute perfect vision of Jesus, but we can pray daily to see more clearly as He sees people and events.
Very true, Janice. It’s always helpful to try to walk in another person’s situation, to gain understanding and also empathy.