Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The Big Picture and the Forest


Quote of the day:
“Investors who make the most money over the long term buy and hold common stocks.”
--Ibbotson Associates research of the period 1926 to 2007.

Quote of the day no. 2:
“Both joy and purpose can take some cultivating.”
--Carolyn Hax

Statistic of the day:
“In 1970, 49 percent of adults in their 20s read a daily newspaper; now it’s at 21 percent.”
--David Brooks

A new disease has been discovered. It’s called Lop. Lack of perspective.

Perspective is one of those things that we all feel we have, and understand fully. Thus we’ve blithely filed it away somewhere. We don’t need to refer to the file, because we really, really know we have perspective. Others may not, but we do.

Simultaneously, we proceed to live in our narrow, short-range and often self-absorbed vision of the world.

Yes, this is a diatribe. What fun is life without a diatribe once in a while?

Having perspective involves first of all being able and willing to back out of our current circumstances, opinions and feelings, so that we can see “the big picture.”

Ah, yes, “the big picture.” What a hackneyed idea that is. But back in the day it did mean something, and it was simple. It was a metaphor.

If your nose is up against the picture on the wall you may see a few brush strokes or pixels. Yet when you can back away far enough, you can see “the big picture.”

The other cliche that applies is “not seeing the forest for the trees.” The way bad listening causes things to transmutate these days, a lot of people probably think this phrase is “not seeing the poorest for the fleas.” Or something like that.

Whether it’s the big picture or the forest, we simply don’t see it in our daily lives. And we rarely see it in our lives at all.

If we can’t see the big picture, we can’t live in it. Instead we’re our own little yellow brushstroke or mauve pixel, just sitting there, glued to the canvas or paper.

If we can’t see the forest, we can’t live in it. Instead, we’re just stuck in a tree, with a lot to complain about.

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