#1
Welcome!
This is the inaugural edition of the unperspective newsletter.
You are in for a treat!
First, let’s address the name “unperspective”. For most of my life I have seen the world from a different perspective than my family, friends, colleagues… My curiosity often pokes its head up and says “that’s not how it is!”. This might be anything from reading words quite literally, to spotting a spelling mistake from 40 paces.
When I first moved to America, I wanted to know the origin of all that was – to me – unusual. Why do we say “bless you!” when someone sneezes? What is the origin of Halloween? I was never satisfied because no two explanations were ever the same.
I needed to research to discover the “truth” of many cultural quirks. During that phase of my life, I discovered urban legend and cliche. I learned that cliche, no matter the origin of the story, allowed people to excuse mistakes and behavior with, what became, a simple dismissal.
Soon, I discovered that if I were to take cliches and turn them upside down and inside out, they would become far more powerful – less an excuse, and more motivation.
A quick example is “the grass is always greener on the other side”. This cliche allows people to continue to search for something “better”. I can now have permission to be dissatisfied with my current situation; with my status quo. Rather than take an inherently pessimistic view, we can flip the cliche. How about “the grass is greener where you water”. Now I can be empowered to invest in my current situation, with an eye to evolution and improvement without pessimism. I don’t need to be stagnant, nor do I need to be wishing (and doing nothing else) that I could find some mythical “other side”.
I call this action of flipping or upending tradition and cliche “unperspective”. It means I have permission to take another look at the world around me for the possibility of optimism and joy.
The unperspective newsletter is designed to offer a fresh perspective. unperspective will be published as often as possible – with a plan for once a month.
Your feedback, suggestions, and contributions are welcome.
unperspective will offer various items:
- one unperspective
- overview of two recent blog entries
- links to interesting and unexpected perspectives
- an interesting photo perspective
- your contributions
one unperspective
Cliche: “Time heals all wounds”
unperspective: Time allows decay, which leads to death and destruction. We must pay attention to our wounds and apply the appropriate salve and healing. Instead of waiting, DO something to address your wounds.
two recent blogs
interesting and unexpected perspective
We are spectacularly bad at predicting the future. Ignore the AI hype and fear
Nobody actually knows what will come of AI. But we can console ourselves with the knowledge that nobody has ever really known anything about the future…
photo location
Municipal House, Prague 1, Prague, Czechia