Everyone is stuck with their own perspective

My life has been an experience of ever expanding my storehouse of information about this life that I am living. Every day I am bombarded with new waves of information. I watch, I listen and I read. I have a stack of books waiting to be read. I read book reviews and identify more books to be purchased and read. When I graduated from college and again when I graduated from seminary, I was impressed with how much I had yet to learn. I have never caught up and now know I never will.

Some pieces of information I have found more important than others. Some books have been thoroughly forgettable. Others have had life-changing influence.

Edward Ramsdell was a theologian who taught at Garrett Theological Seminary when I was a student there in the late 1950s. Ramsdell wrote a book titled “The Christian Perspective.” It was a relatively thin book. I read it. I digested it. I have never been the same.

A portion of the book is devoted to the problem of perspective. On reflection, perspective is not a problem. It is an inescapable reality. I am stuck in one body. I am stuck with only two eyes and two ears. I can live life only in the one body that I have been given. I can change locations, but I can never be in two places at once. I can see and hear only what is available to my two ears and two eyes. It is true that electronics has greatly expanded what is available to my eyes and ears, but it is still true that I have only one set of eyes and one set of ears.

When I read Ramsdell’s book, I realized how limited I was as I lived my life in a universe that is far larger than I can imagine. It was a humbling realization to a young man eager to know and understand everything.

However, there was another side to the perspective coin. No other person has ever or will ever see life from the same perspective as I have and will. Ramsdell had affirmed the uniqueness of my life. Ramsdell had affirmed my importance. I had never occurred before and will never occur again. I identified myself as a humbled unique.

Along with these realizations, I had learned that every person who has ever lived has had the same limitations and the same uniqueness. It was apparent to me that my life could be enriched only if I both listened and shared. I faced my need to be a part of community where I both listened and shared.

The title of Ed Ramsdell’s book was “The Christian Perspective.” Ramsdell was the custodian of a unique perspective that he had made his own. As a professional theologian, he was a Christian with special responsibilities. He readily admitted that his own personal perspective was not the only way to see the Christian faith. Others also have made Christian faith their own. Ramsdell held the differing opinions of other Christians in high regard. This led him to carry on lively arguments with his faculty colleagues about Christian theology. He never doubted the importance of his own understanding of what it meant to be a Christian. His own Christian perspective was unique and important to share.

The same dynamic was found in his study of other religions. Other faiths involve differing perspectives. Any religion that claims preeminence over other religions is lacking in humility and is probably guilty of arrogance. At the same time, in order to have a viable religious faith, a believer must have confidence in his/her own perspective. If understood, the reality of perspective calls for a person to be both certain and humble.

What is true of religion is true of other areas of life. Politics, economics, philosophy, sociology, and psychology are close at hand.

In a recent Time magazine cover story, economist Tyler Cowen makes the case for Texas being the model for the future of America. Professor Cowen identifies himself as a Libertarian. With that identification, Cowen had given me a vital part of his perspective. I found myself arguing with most every paragraph in the eight-page epistle. From my own perspective, Texas presents America with a formula for disaster. Deregulated commerce, few unions, low wages, very few if any government supplied social safety nets. The rich will get richer; the poor will become poorer. Economic cycles of boom and bust are predictable. In a recent article in Christian Century, among the 50 states, Texas is identified as being 11th in the percentage of children living in poverty. In the state of Texas, 25.8 percent of all children live in poverty. It is obvious to me that the economists and the humanitarians in Texas are in urgent need of conversation.

The reality of perspective seems obvious, but it is a difficult lesson to learn. Certainty and humility seem like an odd couple, but when certainty is coupled with humility, creative things can happen for the wellbeing of everyone.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.

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