The Blind Men and the Elephant
Three blind men come across an elephant. The first man happens upon its leg, and concludes it’s a tree. The second man bumps into its trunk, and concludes it’s a snake. The last blind man feels its tail, and concludes it’s a broom. Moral of the story? One person’s subjective truth may not be another’s truth, let alone the whole truth or even any part of the truth. (There’s a whole lot more to this story, but you get the idea).
This ancient Indian parable speaks volumes about perspective. In psychology, we respect everyone’s point of view with the premise that everyone is right considering where they are in the moment, with what their experience has taught them. Wise people attempt to remain open to understand that we don’t know what we don’t know, and what we cannot see at the moment.
While our country’s politics are quite polarized at the moment, perhaps a reminder of this perspective on perspective can remind us to remain open-minded vs. living in a state of confirmation bias, which looks like this:
“A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe