"The ultimate judge of your swing
is the flight of the ball."
-- Ben Hogan
[Classic post from 10-16-16]
As this quote relates to golf, and it speaks of truth being told by the effects of our actions, it seems like a great point of view, and certainly somewhat poetic in its expression. However, it is but one point of view of the event.
One could take a view from outside at any point where the event can be seen and come up with a different view to express. There could even be a criticism of the swing, the stance, the posture, the hands and grip, the follow through or lack thereof, the choice of club, the angle of the club, the dampness of the grass, or a hundred and one other thoughts about this one simple event.
At the same time, the event can be complicated dramatically in having the event take place in a tournament, and even more dramatically in the final shots of the tournament where everything, even a lifetime of work is poured into this one critical shot. We do tend to take the simple and complicate it, and the more points of view there are, the more complicated it gets.
Then there's the memory. Years later someone recalls the event. It was a big event, an important event, and all the points of view that were there have a point of view in their memory, complicated more by their own recollections of so many other events, how they are feeling that day, and any number of other influences mingling around that memory.
Then, many years beyond this distant memory, where most, if not all of the points of view have passed from this point of life, one takes upon the task of recreating the event from those records that may still exist, which may include a handful of the points of view who bothered to recall their memory to paper or other record such as telling the story to someone else who is currently available or who recorded it for posterity.
At the same time as the event itself, there are untold numbers of interconnected events as in the lives of the people involved that led to this event and their participation in it, including other factors that perhaps have some bearing on the event, the progress of the event, or the outcome of the event.
In other words, the more you look for, the more is going on. It is no longer an event. It is history. This is history, and it is told in all manner of ways. Yet no matter what depth one goes to in order to understand the event, it cannot be fully understood. Not even when the event took place. For the now that was the event was so full of information, it could not be contained in any record as a complete event. It is simply what each point of view says it is, whether at the event in real time or as history at any point in the future.
This is the same with the people who are involved in the event. Each of them is unique and brings all of their accumulated living to the event with them. They can be judged by points of view on any point of that accumulation, as well they can judge themselves in that same way, and yet this is but a point of view, isn't it?
I have studied much history, and particularly of the United States, with special attention to selected events and in-depth biographies of many of the people involved in the events, with focus on the accumulated living of that person.
I have realized that this study of history is interesting, but not Truth. There is no Truth, but only points of view. I love how Albert Einstein said, "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." But, don't take this wrong. I am interested and enjoying history. It is simply that I try to keep it simple in that I enjoy the story and find appreciation in its expression without taking it too seriously. What I mean by taking it seriously, is that I allow it to be as it was expressed, but I don't get upset by it. I look at it as it is stated and let it go.
This does not mean that I do not learn, or that I do not use what I have learned in it within my own life. I certainly do. One of my favorite quotes by Abraham Lincoln is this: "I don't like that man. I must get to know him better." This is like history to me, not only of events but certainly of people. It applies in history. It applies in my life today, right now.
I can only judge from a point of view, and I am taught by history that my point of view or a point of view is so limited as to be almost insignificant. To judge from this place is to be as ignorant as to not have known at all.
I have learned to love people more, to appreciate them, for their circumstances in history, for the various points of view that might attack them righteously or without any merit other than their own personal or political agenda. This affects me today in choosing to love people regardless of what others or any other recording might say about them. These are merely points of view. I may have my own, and I cannot see from their view, so I take that as an expression of a perspective.
I choose to love them in all of it. I choose to love the events they were involved in as is going on here today. History is being made every second of every day in each and every point of view. Each of us chooses what to think and feel about that.
I Choose To Love, And To Enjoy The Story. And To Learn To Broaden My Point Of View.
Spread Some Joy Today--by giving everyone the benefit of doubt. Seek to find something to appreciate in another and events. This will open the door to invite in more and more joy. Your point of view is malleable.
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