Blind or not?

Today, lunch is being served in the dining room for once, not in the kitchen or conservatory as usual. So, we’re sitting opposite each other at the dining table – my husband and I – and talking about how beautiful it is that the canola field, which can be seen from the table, is already starting to turn yellow. It looks somehow impressive how a yellow hue is blending in with the otherwise green field in some places. “There’s a field over there that’s already quite yellow,” my husband remarks, pointing in the right direction. I follow his finger and scan the horizon, but to no avail. “I can’t see what you mean,” I explain. “Well, over there!” my husband remarks, a little irritated. Again, my gaze sweeps over the entire area he has indicated. Nothing. My husband can only marvel at so much blindness, gets up and starts looking for the wonderful yellow field from my side. And lo and behold, he can’t see it from my position either.

How often am I impatient, uncomprehending of the other person’s blindness and shake my head at him. “He must see that,” I think. “How can he”, I judge. “Why does she only do this or that”, I know better. And in my lack of understanding, my anger, my know-it-all attitude, I completely overlook the fact that the other person has a completely different field of vision. They don’t see life the way I do because their life has been shaped by other experiences, because they have learned and internalized other things in their life. He or she does not have my perspective, cannot and does not have to have it. Because no matter how good or bad my point of view is, the other person has a different one, which is perhaps just as good, only different. How much more compassionate I would become if I reminded myself of this every now and then. How much more understanding I would have for the “different” in others. Just as my husband suddenly had understanding for my supposed blindness. 😉