I saw a this bumper sticker the other day:
Don't change the way you look.
Change the way you see.
It was timely, that particular sticker, because I've been kind of wrestling with my reaction to something that really is none of my business anyway, something I can't really get into that much on the one-in-a-trillion chance that the person I'm talking about reads this. Short, vague version is that some people we know are doing something that, although well-intentioned and kind-hearted for sure, also seems risky and, well, considering the resources and personalities and possible complications involved, a little nuts. Chris and I have had long conversations about how crazy this is and how it will never work and how it will adversely affect many of the players involved and how it's something we would never, ever, even for a minute consider doing.
But that's the thing, isn't it -- it sounds crazy to me. It sounds like a bad idea to me. I think it's sheer lunacy. I realized, as I was being all Judgey McJudgerson, that I was viewing the situation from the perspective of someone who has never been in this situation, someone who comes from a place of relative privilege and ease, which may in fact mean that my opinion means nothing at all. And that may seem really obvious because we all learn in third grade that you have to walk a mile in someone else's shoes, etc., but it struck me how hard it is, sometimes, to untangle your opinions from the circumstances in your own life that makes you hold those opinions.
Don't change the way you look.
Change the way you see.
It was timely, that particular sticker, because I've been kind of wrestling with my reaction to something that really is none of my business anyway, something I can't really get into that much on the one-in-a-trillion chance that the person I'm talking about reads this. Short, vague version is that some people we know are doing something that, although well-intentioned and kind-hearted for sure, also seems risky and, well, considering the resources and personalities and possible complications involved, a little nuts. Chris and I have had long conversations about how crazy this is and how it will never work and how it will adversely affect many of the players involved and how it's something we would never, ever, even for a minute consider doing.
But that's the thing, isn't it -- it sounds crazy to me. It sounds like a bad idea to me. I think it's sheer lunacy. I realized, as I was being all Judgey McJudgerson, that I was viewing the situation from the perspective of someone who has never been in this situation, someone who comes from a place of relative privilege and ease, which may in fact mean that my opinion means nothing at all. And that may seem really obvious because we all learn in third grade that you have to walk a mile in someone else's shoes, etc., but it struck me how hard it is, sometimes, to untangle your opinions from the circumstances in your own life that makes you hold those opinions.
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