By Dr Kayode Solomon
Perspectives are like our visual field. Some people can see very far and some cannot even read news print right under their nose. It is safe to say that nature is kinder to some than to some others.
When we have a far reaching perspective we owe it to the “myopic” a duty to be gentle and patient. We often lose the point when we harangue them with our “superior” opinion, an argument often ensues and the topic changes from the subject matter to how we feel about what choice of words were used or their attitude.
Have we ever considered the “myopic’s” view? Their views on ethnicity, politics, religion and relationships? Our strong imposition of our superior view often makes them even more defensive and they would rather win the argument than consider a clearer view.
A long time ago, just before getting into UNILAG; My brother would let me drive us to campus in an attempt to improve my driving skills. We always had arguments on the way because all up till then, I never knew I needed glasses so I had none and I squinted my way through blurry situations. So he often goes “slow down, there is a bump ahead” and I go o.k but I don’t slow down till I see the bump or pothole and it’s often too late so I slam the breaks. He gets livid and tells me I am a bad driver, I defend myself and the argument continues. He always thought I did those things deliberately until one day, he asked me to read out the plate number of the car in front of us and I couldn’t. He had a big laugh, I was convinced he couldn’t read the plates either but he could. I was shocked, he said to me “so all this while I was mad at you, I didn’t know you couldn’t see”.
I went to get my first pair of glasses afterwards and when I put them on, I looked around like a lost child, it was a whole new world. I couldn’t believe what I had been missing all this while. I greeted people who had assumed I always snubbed them and I had to explain one day that it was my poor sight. My visual impairment was doing a lot of harm to me and I never knew.
This taught me that often times people are not the problem, their perspective is.
How far can you see?
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