One of my first experiences of deep thinking came in the realization of myself.  As this may sound strange, it hit me pretty hard at age 13.  I had an epiphany that I was who I was.  I was David James Caselli born in Sacramento California to a mid class family on the east side.  I was tall for my age and alittle chubby.  I was no one else but myself.  In a way I felt I had lost some control.  I had no choice on who I was or who I was going to be.  I would always be this David Caselli person in this body that I was born with.  I had to sit down as the thoughts overwhelmed me.  At the time I didn’t realize it, but it was the beginning of a long journey of self searching.  But it was the first step in learning something new about the world I live in and my place in it.

Overall I feel that most people in this world have never even had this thought enter their mind, or at least they have never tried to really ponder it.  I say this because I feel that a lot of people forget the perspective they have been given.  They live their lives for the one point of view they were given as a child. Their own.  The theme of perspective is forgotten so often and because of this, it effects the lives of the entire population.  Let me explain.

Let’s start with a quote from my man T.I., a local Atlanta rapper, “In order to understand my train of thoughts  you’ll have to put yo self in my position.  You cant expect me to think like you cuz my life ain’t like yours.”  His life is not like yours.  All he is asking is for people to judge him from his perspective and not your own.  This world is full of diversity.  Everyone is different and people fear that.  It is a simple concept but humans fear what they don’t understand.  All I really can truly understand is my own perspective yet I can try to put myself on someone else level and see from their side.  In doing this, problems can be resolved as you truly try to understand the person or the conflict or the society.  

Racism, Sexism, Agism and every other form of segrigation is all based on fear.  It is the fear of someone that is not like you.  We all need to admit that in one way or another we have this fear inside us.  As non-rascist as someone may think they are, there is a part of them that would rather be around someone of thier own race or age or sex as it makes them more comfortable.   Most of the time we don’t even realize our fear and quitely avoid it without confrontation.  My point is that when we segragate ourselves from the rest of the world, we refuse to look through the eyes of others.  And in doing this, we will never truly undersatnd each other and will always be in fear of one another.

The same thing holds when someone is in a certain mood.  If your wife is unhappy with you for no apparent reason, maybe there is an emotion running through her head because she is PMSing and she is stressed at work and stubbed her toe at 10:35am.  She may not even realize it, but this is the reason she is not a happy camper.  You, as her husband, have no way to understand as you cannot see it from her perspective.  You want to do everything to make her happy, but have no idea where the problem lies.  It’s up to you to find the answer to that one, as I have no idea.

All I am saying is that there is a reason for everyone’s actions.  They stem from that persons perspective.  As horrible the war overseas is, the people over there are doing the things they are doing for a reason.  Either Iraqi, United States Military or Al Quida.  Whether we think it is the right reason or not, it is not up to us to determine.  We were not born into a family that was part of Al Quida and if we were, we would hate the US just as much as they do.  And if we didn’t hate the US, we would be shot.  It also holds true here in the US.  What if I said I hated the US.  Why would I say that?  Shouldn’t I have some pride for the country I was born in?  Yes, I should and I should back my government no matter what.  Right?  It’s all a matter of perspective.

All this perspective talk made me think about life and who is wrong and right in this world.  All in all I think people are good.  Humans try to do what they think is right.  No one is truly evil.  Hitler had no respect for anyone else except himself and his power and his country.  He did what he thought was right.  He truly thought that if he ruled the world, it would be a better place.  I think he had the same problem as we all have today.  It is easy to judge each other and to say someone is doing something “wrong”, but it is our own responsibility to look deeper and to find the reason why someone is making that “wrong” decision.  And in doing that, we could find that the “wrong” decision may not be “wrong” at all. Maybe that”wrong” decision was only a misguided attempt to do something right.

We need to see things from other people’s perspectives as it is the only way to truly understand each other.