The World Of Perception

By: Manaswini

You all must have heard this phrase somewhere…

All that glistens is not gold;

Often have you heard that told:

For those who don’t know where this phrase is from, it’s from one of Shakespeare’s works – The Merchant of Venice.

Reading his works back in school, none of what he said made any sense to me but now most do…From all of the works I’ve read of his, this particular piece resonates the most for me.

If I were to put across the most literal meaning for this particular phrase, it is that love or anything you seek is not some shiny, glittery object rather it’s a responsibility, an obligation.

Now coming to the main topic of today’s discussion which is somehow related to this, is what is absolute truth or rather what is right and what is wrong?

When I was trying to come up with ideas for this article, I went completely blank…but fortunately for me, I had some help. This person told me to write what exactly is going through in my head and I did just that.

You see, when we were kids, we have a set of what is right and what is wrong. But as you grow up and start seeing the world with your own eyes, things tend to be…..well…not so true. Right and wrong are a perspective…at least that’s what I think… What most people think is right may not necessarily be right and what most people think is wrong well…..you know the answer to that. A decision you thought was right or wrong may give you doubts because you see.. at that moment that you took the decision, it was a perspective.

The dictionary definition of perspective is “a particular way of considering something”.

It can be the sky or the view out of your window or a person or well just about anything.

When the word perspective comes to my head, I imagine looking at the world through glasses or what a sky would look like when I am standing on the ground surrounded by tall buildings.

Marcus Aurelius once said, “Today I escaped the power of circumstance, or rather I cast all circumstance out; for it was not outside me, but within me, in my judgments.” Having a perspective and acting on that perspective are two entirely different things. Like…I love dogs but…from a distance. I don’t dare to have them as a pet for sure. What I am trying to say from all of this is to believe in your perspective because there is no true or absolute right or wrong in life. It’s all simply different perspectives on a particular subject. Resolve to see things differently because like Aurelius said, perspectives come from circumstances. No one person has the same circumstance in life. They might be similar but they won’t be the exact same.

I hope you all remember this after reading this piece.

At the end of the day, it’s all a perspective. The way one views life. Now I am not saying that this is the case all of the time…it’s the case most of the time.

When you are reading this, you have a perspective of your own but you are just reading mine.