Sometimes we know. Sometimes we think we know but we don’t. Sometimes we don’t know, when we should. Sometimes we want to know, but can’t. Sometimes we deny the facts because we think it helps us to get along. Paul Simon wrote, “All lies and jest still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.” Perspective is a funny thing. No matter how hard we try, we never really know another person’s perspective. This doesn’t mean we give up trying to understand. Understanding another’s perspective can be hard work but it’s important work.
Some people tend to avoid this hard work of understanding. This may be why some don’t really care to empathize. Why care if I’m not being directly impacted? This question is why justice is at risk. There is no care or concern until it impacts individuals directly.
A politician’s son in my state came out as gay. Up to the point he knew his son was gay, he was opposed to gay rights. The man’s perspective immediately changed when he learned of his son’s homosexuality, and he was in support of certain human rights for gays. A former president’s wife changed her tune about the sanctity of an embryo when she saw that embryos were needed for stem cell research that could save her husband’s life and countless others who suffer from Alzheimer’s. Life has a funny way of imposing certain sensibilities on us when we are desperate to be free of suffering. Perspectives change.
Countless times in stories we see a character assume the persona of another character right before our eyes. In “Nickle Boys,” the Pulitzer Prize winning story of two black adolescents in a reformatory school in Florida, we see a transformation take place. The filmmakers present perspectives throughout the film that open our eyes to a character’s understanding in unique ways. Images relay common experience, snapshots of a time, establishing a central context for the plot. Juxtapositions of perspectives play out and we see it not only from the one person’s perspective but the other’s as well. In the end, we’re left to understand how these various perspectives play out. One character’s street smarts help the other survive, while the other character’s book smarts do their part in rendering justice. In the end who will survive and how?
Whatever the case may be, all we have in life is context based on facts. Most people can relate to hurt, unfairness, inequality, indecency, and the broken-hearted bloodstains life renders on the fabric of our being, but for some the stains run deeper and don’t come out in the wash. They are there as a constant reminder that our world of indecency is always with us.
The injustices faced by some offer us perspective on how grace in the face of indecency can empower us to rise above. When I was recently saddened by an injustice I recognized, I was comforted by a woman who has faced it her whole life because of her sex and the color of her skin. Her encouragement empowered me to see that it is incumbent on me to do better and “show up” for others.
But no one can truly relate to the experiences of another until the scales of justice have tipped against them. The barriers that oppress are a heavier burden than some can imagine. The color barrier, the sex barrier, the age barrier, the class barrier bring with them burdens of inequality distinctly held by those who bear the respective distinction in the fiber of being.
In 1961, John Howard Griffin assumed the personality of a black man in segregated Jim Crow South. He underwent treatment to change his skin color. In the process he became part of the black community and felt solidarity with them in their plight to fight for equality. He struggled to find work due to his skin color, he couldn’t eat in white cafes. He faced cruelty as he walked down the street minding his own business. This is the closest any white man has come to understanding the black experience and he wrote about it in his novel “Black Like Me.”
On a day where the richest man in the world, proudly gives a Nazi salute at the presidential inauguration, and supports an extreme right party in Germany called AfD (Alternative for Germany Party), maybe it’s time for us to re-examine where we are going. On Sunday night Trump praised Musk for helping him deliver Pennsylvania due to his computer knowledge and will be a senior advisor in Trump’s administration.
President Trump released a bitcoin honoring his presidency. During the first term he denounced the currency, but since he’s made 60 billion dollars off it since its release on Saturday, he and his wife are all for it. The oligarchs of this country looked on as he was being sworn into office. President Biden felt as though he needed to pre-emptively pardon the January 6th committee and former officials for fear that they would be unfairly prosecuted for doing their jobs.
Trump pardoned the January 6th rioters who were responsible for the harm and death of Capitol officers. The pardon included the leader of the white supremist group the Proud Boys who was found guilty of seditious acts and was to serve 22 years in prison. Meanwhile, the Proud Boys marched through the streets of Washington chanting, “Whose streets? Our streets!”
As MLK writes: “Human rights always apply to everyone, everywhere. They are not to be invoked or ignored depending on whether they further political interests. Everyone in the United States is entitled to the full panoply of these fundamental human rights and freedoms.” King understood that every perspective is important not just the rich man who runs the world. He implicitly knew that we are inextricably linked to “a single garment of destiny.” He writes, “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”
Perspectives are one thing. Facts are another. Perspectives taint facts, but truth is truth and everything outs in life. The lies we tell ourselves will either make us or break us.
spirit beat 