POWER OF PERSPECTIVE

Rip Parker
2 min readJul 18, 2024

JOINING OPPOSITES

I looked down on a tree as it spiraled counterclockwise into vortex, in Sedona Az. Looking up it spiraled clockwise into epicenter. Same tree, same spiral, two different perspectives.

I now play a mental game. Eyes closed I visualize. The same spiral. As I raise my “view”, I come to the shift where as I begin to visualize up, I observe the shift from counter to clockwise.

Back and forth my vision shifts to the very point of shift. This is good exercise.

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My view of the world is shaped by my current perspective. I force myself to look in the opposite direction. It takes work, with emotion to feel reality from the opposite direction.

The most prominent subject for this work is politics. I find my current bias to be so strong I don’t want to feel what the opposition feels.

To make this real I must admit, I am as anti Trump as one can get. Attempting to honestly feel what his supporters feel is close to impossible.

But, I work at it, with only hints of dishonest success. Occasionally I glimpse their beliefs, but I am immediately repelled by their soulless conclusions.

I continue to search for the common ground with little success. But, it is good exercise.

Now, timeout while I go back to the spiraling tree. That is much easier, even relaxing.

My political perspective is so firmly rooted in what seems such rational thought it is extremely difficult to imagine a real common ground. I challenge myself to continue the search.

If I begin to think I’ve found common ground, I’ll write about it before it slips away.

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Rip Parker
Rip Parker

Written by Rip Parker

Geophysicist, lawyer, mediator, student of Jung, phenomenology, semiotics

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