Seattle to San Francisco road trip in 3 weeks mostly along highway 1. Eight stopovers in eight different places. At first, we see the new place through the lens of the previous one but it doesn't take long to adapt to the new hotel, the new environment and the new people.
At first, I found this ability to adapt not only extraordinary but healthy. At first, I thought that adapting quickly to the new place, the new scenery, new people, new names, new noises and new smells, meant that we could enjoy the new place and judge it on its own merits and not in comparison with what came before. Simple, I thought, or so I wanted to believe.
These comparisons returned unexpectedly when we drove through California towards San Francisco. I was reminded of Italy. No wonder the Italians loved it here. "Which Italians?" I hear you ask. Those who migrated to the US between 1880 and 1920, I meant, and their Italian names stand proudly over the hillside vineyards. Yes, they brought to mind the land south of Naples and, with this reminder, I saw how hard it was to accept something on its own merits, how hard it was not to compare with something else, something similar, something from the past.
I suppose that what I am saying is that we usually see the world through the lens of our experience. Experience is beautiful. Experience is great. However, my objections is this. Experience should never take away from reality, so that reality is never given a fighting chance to be what it is.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to view the present not through the lens of the past but through the lens of the future? With a lens of the future, you might be able to to see a world you would like to create or a world you would like to see created. What we need to cultivate is the ability to see something we already know as if for the very first time. You might want to compare this to adjusting to new glasses. Even if seeing our life’s experiences with fresh eyes can be unsettling, surely, it’s worth the effort. When we change our perspective, we might change our lives.
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