One Apple A Day #285
This morning card carries a proper invitation.
“Inviting multiple perspectives.“
As a firm believer of the importance of keeping our gaze on the goal we want to achieve, I’m also aware of the risks of such a narrowed focus.
We may fall into the trap of thinking that what we see is the only way and we will miss the opportunity to see other possibilities.
The card reminds me of a Rumi’s poem titled “An elephant in the dark”.
Some Hindus have an elephant to show.
No one here has ever seen an elephant.
They bring it at night to a dark room.One by one, we go in the dark and come out
saying how we experience the animal.
One of us happens to touch the trunk.
A water-pipe kind of creature.Another, the ear. A very strong, always moving
back and forth, fan-animal. Another, the leg.
I find it still, like a column on a temple.Another touches the curved back.
A leathery throne. Another the cleverest,
feels the tusk. A rounded sword made of porcelain.
He is proud of his description.Each of us touches one place
and understands the whole that way.
The palm and the fingers feeling in the dark
are how the senses explore the reality of the elephant.If each of us held a candle there,
and if we went in together, we could see it.
I think this poem explains it all.
Too often we behave like one of this men.
We enter the circumstances blind to the big picture, relying only on what we see, hear or touch. We transform our limited perception in the whole reality.
You would expect that internet, with its ability to connect us with everyone else, should help us in opening up to new perspectives. Unfortunately, most of the online media work do their best to close us inside bubbles. Bubbles built around our viewpoint and reinforcing it.
How much more vibrant would be our life if we could open up to other perspectives?
This card invites me to be curious and open to new perspectives.
It’s an invitation to be aware of the bubble I live in and try to break it, reading something different and listening to someone with a different perspective.