Time to Change Perspective

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

-Dr. Wayne Dyer

The happenings of the past week (11/3-10/2024) provided “a wake-up call” for me.  On Sunday, I conformed to governmental regulation and turned our clocks back an hour from Daylight Saving Time to Eastern Standard Time.  The sun rose and set, however, as usual.  The time change was disorienting and forced me to change perspective.  

Then came the national, state, and local elections, and the election results were contrary to my rigid perspective on how the governance of the United States, the State of Ohio, and the County of Madison should proceed.  Following my reaction of being STUNNED,  I have ruminated and now find myself writing these words.

Like earworms, our brains can become so narrowly focused on a subject, that without a mechanism to broaden our focus, we can find ourselves in an obsessive loop, and in my case this week, that loop included anger, disgust, and despondency. The time has arrived for me to get out of my funk and broaden my focus!

Our internal perspectives mold how we interact with the world. We often hear, “All politics is local.”  Andrew Gelman, a Professor of Statistics and Political Science at Columbia, argues that the "local" refers to the fact that politicians "need local skills to win the primary election that gets them into their safe seat, and they need backroom political skills in the state legislature to keep their safe seats every 10 years."  But I interpret the phrase differently, I intend to bring politics even more local by reevaluating the way I allow government to interfere in my life, and by changing the way that I allow politics to shape my focus.  By broadening my perspective, I will not allow governmental tendencies and regulations to upset my personal equilibrium, and by sticking to my principles, seek a state of equanimity.

May the light and regularity of the sunrise enlighten us.

CPW