Perspective

Perspective. Point of view.

The cat is just sitting there.

I encounter this a lot, as there is a table not quite as high as the kitchen counter upon which the cats like to site a look into the kitchen. From the front room, it is just a cat’s back sitting on a table. From the kitchen, it’s two adorable eyes ‘peeking over an edge’.

To most it is a shadow. To a some it is a shape. And to a few it is a subject.

It was once suggested to me in a class that we live ignorantly in a world of ‘opinion’, the way birds fly ignorant of such things as ‘air’, and fish swim unaware of the water in which they swim.

And opinion is, in fact, only perspective.

One-point is opinion.

Two-points add depth and perspective.

And three-points often lead to distortion.

A single point in geometry has no dimension, ergo can have no ‘perspective’. Once another point is placed, a line is formed. Now we have the perspective of a ‘long’ or ‘short’ distance between the points. There is a fact, but there is also opinion and perspective.

Should I look directly from above, the glass will ALWAYS appear full or empty. None of this half way stuff.

Our opinion is tasty or unpalatable. Pretty or ugly.

Those of us that see ‘Oh, look how cute!’ just can’t imagine anyone seeing the same image and just shrugging their shoulders and saying, So what! It’s a cat sitting behind a wall!’
 

I remember a lifetime ago on NBC Sixty Minutes, Mike Wallace did a report titled, ‘An Essay on Ugly’. His first reference was that MOST would and do consider long, wavy blond hair to be ‘beautiful’ But what if it is lying across your dinner plate?

I imagine there will be 'more to come' on this topic.