Sunrise, Sunset, The Seasons of Our Lives and Arbitrary Values
65Things are actually very simple. Solutions are simple. It is this simplicity that our minds refuse to accept that makes us blind to the simplicity. Somehow the mind thrives on the thrill of making things complicated. The complication entertains it.
Values are assigned. They are arbitrary and can change. It all depends on the frame of mind of the one perceiving the object, or anything in particular, the viewpoint of the perceiver. Note that it is the perceiver who creates the viewpoint.
In college, there was this engineering class which I enjoyed much. We were asked to look at an object and draw it to specifications from a vanishing viewpoint. It was fantastic because looking at the object from a certain perspective and multiple perspectives and to draw how it would look was a great exercise in imagination and precision.
The objective was to present object via a series of plates [drawings] that shows how the object would look, viewed it at different angles.
There is no limit to the number of plates one can submit, but there was a minimum for the grade.
I woke up the other day after connecting with my college classmates on Facebook, and realized, oh my.. we are now the adults and it is our children are who are in college.
We are old in that sense, and for only a few moments that I was talking to one of them, I was brought back to the time I was eighteen years old and in college. In that moment, I shifted my viewpoint from that of the mother of a college student, to the college student I was. It was fun! The vanishing viewpoint was instantaneous, but one thing was very clear. It was I who created the view points, took them away and formed another viewpoint.
What is the significance of this in business? One can look at any business decision with a very simplistic point of view. No need to agonize about anything.
I asked my son something like this the other day “ In debate if the premise were wrong, what happens to the argument?”
He answered “The argument presented is still valid based on the premise that was worked on.” It made me smile, for a scientist who is open minded will always learn something from the experiment even if he proceeded to do the experiment with the wrong assumption, but only if he is open minded.
If the only thing one can get from a business decision that did not result in profit were to learn that you will or will not accept certain things for the sake of profit alone, it was well worth going through all the processes that led to the present moment. The perceived “loss” has now been a gain. Strictly speaking, there are no such things as losses. We assign them and we can unassign them at will. This is true of any life decision, not only the ones that pertain to business.
The sun will always rise where we are on the surface of the earth we are occupying, so it will set. How long is arbitrary. In Alaska, there is 6 months of sun and six months of darkness, if my memory is correct.
I can look at my age as more than half a century passed, or the beginning of the other half of the century. Frankly speaking, as I write this, I feel fantastic, so what does it really matter what one’s age is?
How long must you hang on to the pain of the past? You can summon it at will if you want to experience pain. Or you can dismiss it to experience and move on.
Reassign your values and live a happier life.
© 2010 Melinda M. Sorensson
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Thank you, ghomefitness!!
"Collect the dreams you dreamed today...", "Remember the times of your lives". Great lines from the song. I love Paul Anka. His positive viewpoint is all over this lyrics.
You just chose the right link to your hub. It makes it easy for me to remember your noble thoughts " Values are arbitrary and may change depending on the frame of mind of the one perceiving an object." Thank you.
Thank you, Lita. Yes, I remember that song when it first came out. I loved it so much I memorized it.
You are so right, Melinda, living in the past is pointless and senseless. Instead as someone once said:
“The past is behind, learn from it.
The future is ahead, prepare for it.
The present is here, live it.” Amen!
It was a very good article Melinda,you are right about looking at things with a vanishing viewpoint,because in drafting the item changes from different views,in life we have a tendancy to have tunnel vision,we see things only as they are in present time and lose sight of future,and if one is not careful it could be very damning to them.
Oh.. thank you, Dr. Bj....
Agreed!!
Many hugs!!
Hey, Roger..how are you? Thank you for dropping by!!
Yes, tunnel vision ...we need it sometimes..not all the time. It is better to have awareness of everything!!
we have to learn from the past for "Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it"
We can choose to relive the pain (good if it stops us repeating an error) or simply note it as a warning.
Thank you, Alex. You are right. From the past, we learn the lesson.
I loved that answer of your son. It would have been mine as well. I am so on your page with this issue, msorensson, and it so weird, just an hour or what before I’ve posted a comment on someone’s hub with exactly the same message – no two persons have the same idea/perception of, for instance, dying. Thanks for a most interesting hub and the best advice that I’ve already put into practice: Reassign your values and live a happier life. Take care!
My danged body seems to be getting a bit older, but only when I look in the mirror can I tell that. My mind is. . . .on the edge of 17, just like a white winged dove, or something. . .
Thank you, Martie. It is so true, no two people have the same idea about anything.
Yes, it pleased me, his answer.
Much love, Melinda
Hi, Wesman, wow, awesome! Don't lose it! Thinking like a seventeen year old you will be happy all the time!!
Thanks for dropping by!
Well said, Melinda.
Sometimes, it is about how we look at certain experience. Different perspectives do matters. So, it is good to talk to more people, google for more information or finding the right books to read ....
Once I have a question about my son, and it took me 5 years before I finally got my answer. After that, everything become so clear and manageable.
Wow..that must have been a wonderful experience..to finally get the answer, Ingenira.
We will all go through life with lots of questions...it is fascinating when we get the answers.
Thank you for dropping by. Much appreciated.
I appreciate your point of view. I say live each day to the fullest, you can't change the past and you can't predict the future. Wonderful piece of writing. Voted up and awesome.
Thank you, pop. You are too kind. Yes, we cannot undo the past. We can take the best from them for our memory banks and reminisce in our old age.
We cannot predict the future, but once in a while, I do think of the future.
I keep thinking of me and my girlfriend taking my future grandchildren to Broadway or the Symphony or the Opera, no matter if they are boys or girls.
No difference with respect to educating them.
I am indeed looking forward to that, assuming that the current angst in the whole wide world will fade away in time and the country, and the world will be restored to normalcy.
Oh I so agree, simplicity is key and the understanding the we beings ourselves are simple and basic! Peace is a simple truth always there and so easy to follow!
Well written and inspiring! :) Katie
Yes, thank you, Katie. Simplicity is the key to living a happier life.!!
Thank you. Namaste!
"it was well worth going through all the processes that led to the present moment"
loved this.if all of life is a journey every journey adds to us and so there are never losses - only percievde losses.we always gain whatever we do in life-provided of course that our mind is open.good to see this so simply put as u did mss
namaste to you too.
Namaste, Neelesh,
Each moment of time is a record of consciousness. In fact it is possible to recollect them at will.
The Akashic records are available but when one is sufficiently purified, it is possible to see the past.
There is no need to agonize about the past. Where there was either pain or pleasure, there was attachment, and with it bondage.
Freedom is that state in which, as the Bhagavad Gita says, a man is not seduced by pleasure nor hounded by the pain of the past.
As I am now in my 5th decade of life, I don't take anything else for granted. I wake up daily to the The Lord God my Savior and thank Him for what he has given me to deal with. The little subtle things to deal with, like "Will my car engine start" or "will I get to work on time", or "will I not be overdrawn on my bank account" don't seem to bother me. We all have to be prepared for the worst, so why elevate the blood pressure. Enjoying the precious things in life, like a smile from my coworker or a text from my son or daughter fills my day. Life is what you make it. Show the Creator how much you appreciate Life. Thanks for your Hub!
Wonderful view of life, CM. Oh..yes, gratitude for everything is the best way to live life. Thank you for your comment. Much appreciated.
Hi, Melinda ~ and Happiest New Year, Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday!
Perspective ~ What a wonderful, useful and current topic to share with us. I was transported to my youth watching the Carpenters. I felt a little melancholy as I did, remembering Karen Carpenter's struggle with anorexia. I wonder how much her perspective might have influenced her illness ~ or perhaps, it was her perspective that helped her survive as long as she was able. It is my belief, that we each have our own struggles in this life, in which we are given the opportunity to learn to love ~ ourselves and others.
When I was younger, I thought Life happened to me with or without my help. Of course, as a child, there is little one can do but to survive childhood, hopefully with their spirit still intact ~ the broken pieces put back together through the struggle ~ and we all have broken pieces of one kind or another. It is the human experience, after all.
However, with age comes that vital experience and wisdom, hopefully. In that, I have found that my perspective shifts up, down, sideways, even backward occasionally. The trick is to notice ~ to take those moments of clarity we are all given, and to be able to look within and Really See how our lives, through our sadness, anger, jealousy, envy and our happiness ~ are truly no more than how we CHOOSE to perceive it.
You are so right, that our attachment to those feelings are what hold our perspective hostage. We re-live the pain over and over, repeatedly, under the false pretense that Life is Fair. This eye for an eye mentality forces us into a little box, where we can no longer see outside of our own pain. There is only what beats against our walls, which we continue to erect, that holds us there.
I will remember your words of wisdom, Melinda, as a reminder to me ~ To question my feelings of fear and to adjust my perspective accordingly!
~Scarlett
What a lovely response, Scarlett My Dear. Thank you!!
Moments of clarity, moments of absolute truth and fundamental freedom from the shackles of the mind are a gift that we should take.
Thank you for your contribution. Much appreciated.
Hi, Melinda, you are so right! we go about our days with a certain mindset and forget what else was there and is there, I totally understand what you meant by being back at college again, sometimes things just give us a 'flashback' and we are there again, thank goodness for that! cheers nell
Indeed, and I hear or just read you are back in High School...
I am teasing you.
Much love to you and thanks so much for stopping by, Nell.
Great advice and to tell you the truth, some things that took me a long time to learn. The past is definitely the past and we have to deal with it. I think I wasted a lot of years trying to make things better somehow or wish them away but think you hit it spot on...I also think I live my life that way now which is a huge improvement!
I am glad you accept that the past is already past, akirchner. It is a form of trap, actually. Feeling guilty..and trying to make it better.
We cannot be present if we are still held by the past. In the books, the analogy was, someone trying to meditate while one of his feet is still in the quicksand.
Thank you. Much love to you akirchner!
A very beautiful hub. You are a wise woman. The title of this hub reminded me of the beautiful song 'Sunrise Sunset' from the 1960's musical 'Fiddler on the Roof.'
'Sunrise sunset
Sunrise sunset
Swiftly, swiftly go the years!
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers,
Blossoming even as we gaze.'
Thank you, Dolores, for your kindness. Yes, I remember the song very well and hum it once in a while.
Your comment is much appreciated!!
msorensson,
Oh, I love Karen Carpenter's voice - and what a beautiful tribute and sentiment.
"Every sunrise is a message from God.
Every sun set is God's signature."
I cannot express how much I love this Hub - thank you!
I have never heard "strictly speaking there are no such thing as losses" - what a great philosophy. Very important to small business owners during these difficult time.
Thank you so very much!
Thank you, GmaGoldie! Yes, I love Karen Carpenter's voice too!
You are much appreciated. Thank you for dropping by!!
Thank you your interesting hub with so much thoughts and wisom. Really down to earth. It gave me a new outlook
Thank you, Hello, hello for your comment. I am glad you liked it!!
Excellent writing and the point about reassigning values is so essential to the balance of life. Enmass we have got so off balance with that reuslting in the greed that ensured the financial crisis meltdown and the iodiotic attempts to fix it by the government to throw good money after bad.
A clear indication that the value system - at least at that level - is a long way from rebalancing.
Wow as always a deep insight, Billy. Thanks!!
How wonderful if we can compartmentalize all our thoughts into neat pigeonholes to be taken out as the need arise.To look at life's problems and decision like a draftsman's object.Without the emotional bias that prevents objective consideration of an issue or situation.Half of the world's problem would be solved :)
Thank you, SilentReed for your insight. We say it is 52 F outside. It is no more than a statement of fact. It is us who give it meaning. It would be warm in Berlin, but it would be very cold in Lafayette, Louisiana.
We say I love you, that is also a statement of fact. If we can say it, just as it is, a statement of fact, then it is a generous gift. The greatest gift we can give another. No amount of money can buy it.
We can compartmentalize and vanish compartments but it would be better if we see the panoramic view.
Thank you so much.
Interesting Hub. It is rare to find these types of information today. Great thoughts and wisdom.
Thank you, Sid!!
This is a wonderful hub and with very wise content! As I was reading, I thougth; what a shame I didn´t know this when I was young! Why must it take half a life time, struggling while we make our life complicated! I love your first sentences about simplicity, thats how it is; "solutions are simple" and your last sentence is brilliant! Thanks for your great advices!
You are too kind. Thank you, thoughtforce!!
Very inspiring hub. You made this so beautiful, Madam. Life must go on and never look back. The future always waiting us. Thanks for writing this. Take care!
Prasetio
Thank you, Prasetio. Since your mother is a queen, you must be a prince..not necessarily through inherited titles, but as a gentleman..
Thank you!!
1Timothy 6:6 'But godliness with contentment is great gain.' I think when learn to see every experience in life as positive, we learn what being content really is. Being able to walk in another's shoes, to see the value of moments from here and there changes how negatively we allow things to influence us - we can learn to diminish those negatives. The quicker we reasign a + to a - the sooner we obtain a healthy outlook. Peace
What a wonderful thought. Thank you, AM!!
Great hub. You're right. What does it matter how old we are. The time is now and it is what we do with the now that counts. Thanks for a great read. P.S. Loved the Carpenters song, haven't listened to them in quite a while.
Menomania,thank you. I appreciate.
Msorensson, Very thought provoking and insightful! As we grow older it is important we value life that much more! Each day is a precious gift from God! You are so splendidly optimistic! Cheers! Thank you for sharing your words of wisdom, In His Love, Grace, Joy, Peace & Blessings!
Thank you, DeBorrah..I appreciate your insights, always!!
Much appreciated!!
Enjoyed reading this work again and reflecting back I think we are further from re balancing as not just our society but most societies in the world viz what is going on around the world. Though one has to say for the most part what has gone on in Egypt in non violent change is very promising
Hey, Billy,
Great to see you. Yes, non violent change as Gandhi did.
Thank you, Billy
This is awesome! I especially enjoyed your correlation between mechanical drawing (your engineering assignment) and our perspectives on life. I recently had a similar experience to yours with your old college mates. I recently made contact with my old high school pals - some of whom, I hadn't heard from in decades. I, too, now, have a son who is in college. I remember having thoughts very similar to yours.
Good job! Looking forward to reading more of your writing! By the way... Thanks for following me!
Cheers,
David
Thank you, David
Much appreciated.!!
Karen Carpenter was a beautiful singer. She will always be missed. A beautiful inspiring hub.
Sweet wishes Rhonda
Well-written as always. Excellent hub! I have often felt strange when I realized how quickly roles are switched, from child to parent... I'm still shocked at how quickly I adopted the role without even realizing it.
Totally agreed, its almost always worth going through the process that led to this moment =) I always tell my friends the past made you who you are today which is a great person =)
Nicely written =)
Do something today to bring a smile tomorrow that when looked back upon will also cause a smile tomorrow in that memory of this past. :D I always tell my clients and friends, "We create today tomorrows memories. It all starts now". :D hugs :D
Perhaps our life is a mosiac of infinite perspectives... Our "reality' is a vague "fog" of perceptions... We sense where we are determines where we go and who we were... and perhaps where we are going.
Rene Descartes believe of "I think therefore I am" sums it up!
I think really we all must learn to do this but then I think some, at least one person I know; just takes it too far so that is not good. To look at something and turn it so many times; it drives you crazy, you know?
I was never good at vanishing points when drawing. In every other aspect of my life yes..... just not drawing. Funny that. Awesome article Thanks!
With practice, you can do it experientially...
Look at a candle burning or hold a glass of water in a crystal container as a form of meditation..
Then with a person..an incident..with you both..and look at things from his/her point of view..
Thanks, Penny of Heaven..
Yes I can do that with a person or incident well. Just not drawing. Will try the candle burning and hold a glass of water. Hope that helps me see the vanishing points when I draw. I really do suck at drawing hehe.
Thanks for the advice.
Interesting Concept and I love the fact that you are still in touch with your College classmates via Facebook.
Thank you, Lady E. Yes, quite a few of them, and some in High School as well.
As we age I think that (hopefully) the majority of us continue to grow in wisdom as well. I am also in that last half century of life like you and perspectives of how we think and values we hold dear continue to evolve. Enjoyed reading this hub. Up votes and SHARED with followers.
Thank you, Peggy W. Much appreciated. Yes indeed as we get older our preference, I think, gets simpler. Thank you so much.
Hi, Melinda, just came back to say hi, nice to see you again! I read this again and realised the older we get the more we look back, but we shouldn't. different perspectives are always an option, and I can think I am 18 again! lol!
Ohh of course you can think and feel 18 again! I think I would choose my age to be 25. I was in the best shape in terms of exercise and body tone.
I loved your article on Facial exercise..
Thank you, Nell.
Much love, Melinda
Glad you are "back!"
Thank you Dallas, I am not exactly..I have not written anything in a long time..Work work work..I have forgotten what the meaning of the word Holiday is..
Understand. I have just published book.. got married. purchased new house! Check out my website www eyeswideshutanenigma dot com...
Wooow...! I am sooo happy for you!
I will check your website Congratulations on your marriage..and of course the book!
A great read, you have an amazing attitude. What you say is so true and I'm glad you feel fantastic!
Thank you, strictlydating :-)
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ghomefitness 16 months ago
I had to read over a couple times to see your vantage point. It appears you are seeing life from the right viewpoint! Thanks for the wisdom.