I remember the first time I flew above the clouds. I felt enthralled. Clouds look different and amazing from above. 

Singer Joni Mitchell wrote her greatest song, “Both Sides, Now,” while having a similar experience while flying. In the song she sings about seeing clouds from both sides, below and above. Then she sings about seeing love and life from both sides, win and lose. Different perspectives.

Psychotic individuals hear voices that no one else hears. The voices are usually annoying, to say the least. Psychologists have tried to develop ways to convince these individuals that the voices are not real – that they just seem real. That line of argument rarely works. People trust their own senses, their own perspective. 

Soon after my first child was born, while I walked blocks from home on my way to work, I heard a baby crying. But there was no person or home anywhere near. I kept walking, and a few minutes later I decided the sound was just my anxious imagination misinterpreting wind sounds. My point of view changed from that of a new father to that of a psychologist as I put one foot in front of another. 

Another thing I noticed that after becoming a father: I could not tolerate movie or TV violence anymore. Also, I felt sad when I thought of someone losing a child. 

I remember the first time I flew above the clouds. I felt enthralled. Clouds look different and amazing from above. 

Singer Joni Mitchell wrote her greatest song, “Both Sides, Now,” while having a similar experience while flying. In the song she sings about seeing clouds from both sides, below and above. Then she sings about seeing love and life from both sides, win and lose. Different perspectives.

Psychotic individuals hear voices that no one else hears. The voices are usually annoying, to say the least. Psychologists have tried to develop ways to convince these individuals that the voices are not real – that they just seem real. That line of argument rarely works. People trust their own senses, their own perspective. 

Soon after my first child was born, while I walked blocks from home on my way to work, I heard a baby crying. But there was no person or home anywhere near. I kept walking, and a few minutes later I decided the sound was just my anxious imagination misinterpreting wind sounds. My point of view changed from that of a new father to that of a psychologist as I put one foot in front of another. 

Many individuals think that we humans are made in God’s image. Elon Musk thinks we all are part of a computer simulation. Physicists say that we are star dust because the carbon that makes up much of us is produced only in the centre of stars. When the stars explode, they blow those elements into space, where they sometimes end up in planets like earth and in creatures like us.  These are different perspectives on the drama and comedy of human life.

Perspective matters in many realms of life, including in drawing and painting. When I drew a rose for Valentine’s Day, I copied the perspective taken by an actual artist on the Internet. My rose looked almost real as a result.

Perspective also matters in storytelling. A novelist can tell a story from the perspective of a serial killer, a detective, or a future victim. The different perspectives lead us to have different raw emotions and to acquire different types of understanding.

I recently watched a documentary, Wild, Wild Country, about a cult that took over part of Oregon. The story includes a guru, 22 Rolls-Royces, sexual escapades, and mass poisonings. Each person interviewed had a unique perspective on what happened.

Mostly I see things from my own perspective as a scientist, a writer, and so on. Reading this article may lead you to join me in my point of view, at least for a moment. 

[Photo by Federico Gutierrez on Unsplash]