Perspective

​I was reading an article from another paper this morning about rain.  It was singing the praises of rain and how we cannot do without it.  It was talking about how we don’t want to be caught out in it.  It can ruin a good day (if you look at it that way).  You don’t want it to rain while you are watching a parade, or having a cookout, or any number of things.  But, it pointed out that rain is a good thing.  I mean, it is the basis of life!  It grows food and shelter and clothing.  It prevents fires from getting out of control.  (I have heard that at the end of last week, the brush fires started.)  Imagine if we had no rain.  The landscape would be a boring as the Sahara Desert.  And wildlife- if you want to see some wildlife, head for your nearest area of surface water (pond, stream, etc.).  There will be wildlife there, I am sure.  Rain is a great thing, and places in the west fight over who is going to get that water when it comes down the stream.  They don’t have enough to do what they want to do (live, wash, grow crops, water lawns, etc.).  We need moisture, but sun always steals the show.  After reading the article I was going to write one of my own, expanding on this topic.  However, as I thought of all the good things, I started to add up all the bad things about it- floods, erosion, drowning, supports mold growth, rots things, changes streams over time (usually to places we don’t want it to go), shrinks things, and the list goes on.  I am sure you can come up with a number of things on your own.  I then contemplated that my article should be about all the bad things associated with rain.  We have all experienced those things in the last 6 years.  Then I thought, how could something so good, also be so bad?  Are there other things that way?  And my mind started to drift.  Is it really all about perspective? 

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​If I ever get enough lead time on these articles, I want to start a set of news columns based on “What do you see?”.  I have some great ideas, but not enough time.  The entire premise of the articles will be perspective.  How do you look at “this”, and how do other people look at it?  We have become so focused in this world that we really struggle to look at anything other than exactly the way WE see it.   Is water good, or bad?  Are snakes good, or bad?  Spiders?  How about bats?  I found one in my garage the other day while I was cleaning up.  I put the boards and things back where I found them to keep him there.  My wife was convinced he was a problem.  What were all the old sayings?  They will get in your hair, and they bite (maybe even turn you into a vampire, LOL), and they carry rabies, and so on.  The truth is, they eat thousands of bugs every night.  You know, all those bugs that ruin parties or just setting outside on the porch trying to enjoy yourself.  And, oh yea, those bugs carry West Nile Virus and other diseases.  Of course we are going to keep him, and preferably even build a bat box sometime to lure in even more of them. 
Hopefully the new and exciting column of “What do you see” will start sometime soon.  Until then, open you mind and try to look at things in a different way.  Most things have as many good attributes as they do bad.  It’s all about Perspective.