9/20/2010 Basic Perspectives

     I started another post earlier, but it didn't feel right and WayVer distracted me so it's off in never, never land.  I'm going to write these "to others", even though they are really for me to simply put down my own thoughts.  Anyway my other deleted blog was on Individual Choices as my primary value, but I kept thinking about my saying about people all being the same, totally unique.  So that's what I'm going to "say" now.

     Some time ago I started verbalizing the idea of how people have common thoughts by saying "We're all exactly the same, totally unique!" .  Recently I received feedback about how much someone liked the way that was worded and what it said.  That feedback is exactly what I have in mind for this blog.  As I said, I believe that I have a knack for "turning a phrase" that helps make a point.  It's not mine, but one of the best "phrases" I've seen that really brings home the idea is the email address of one of my Air Force teammates.  Part of his email address is "EasyDoesn't" .  I don't recall off the top of my head if the punctuation is there or not and that certainly isn't important.  I think it's obvious that he's making a comment on the other phrase "Easy does it".  I totally agree with him that Easy Does NOT do it.  To me that is about the epitome of "turning a phrase".

     My undergrad work and degree was/is in Psychology.  As with most who've studied Psy, there are two things that make one regret that study.  First of course is that we "look at ourselves" psychologically and second we are "accused" of "Psychoanalyzing" others.  I believe that pretty much everyone who's ever read any book on Psychology compares it at some level to themselves, I know I certainly did and do.  On the other hand, there are few who are really qualified to Psychoanalyze anybody and often those people don't do a good job.  On the other hand, I certainly do try to figure out the why someone does something.  If that's what is meant by Psychoanalyzing, then okay I guess I'm guilty.  I've always thought it simply makes me a better person by hopefully allowing me to better understand, accept and adapt.

     Having said that, I think it is common knowledge that many people feel they are the only one that ever feels or thinks of certain ways.  I believe the opposite is really the truth.  Each of us have thoughts that are mostly the same as everybody else with the small condition being that others may have those same thoughts in different situations or context.  That is simply because each of us has had a completely unique of previous experiences and each of those experiences shaped our perspective of everything that followed.  Our perspective affects how we experience each situation.  How we interpret what is said is based on our own definition of each word used and the tone and body language that accompanies it.  At the same time, our perspective on what is correct, wrong, appropriate, okay, should, shouldn't etc. shapes how we feel about the actions or inactions and their interconnection to any verbal input.  All of that is going on so rapidly and constantly that we each form a completely unique view of the world based on our perspective of the accumulated interpretation of all that we've experienced or have "heard about" during our life.

     I think we all do that "exactly the same".  That is that we each constantly interpret our experiences based on what we've learned through our prior experiences (and how we interpreted each of those).  That makes us each "exactly the same, totally unique".  We have all had some similar experiences, but we see/feel/experience those differently and uniquely.

My view--OldDog Roger 9/20/2010 1949MST