It's all a matter of your perspective
....The Blind Men and the Elephant

Earlier in the week I asked my husband where our old dog carrier was. Our youngest daughter and her toddler are visiting us soon and will need it because they are bringing their puppy.
He said it was at our older daughter's house.
They had borrowed it---I don't remember why.
 I called it the grayish-beige carrier/kennel.
My husband said it was charcoal.
We wasted the next few minutes disagreeing with each other as to which color it was.

Each of us were positive we were right. Both of us held our ground stubbornly.
I argued that I was the one who would dust the top of it and open it when our Lab, Miranda, wanted out. 

Since it sat in the foyer for a long time I asserted that certainly I knew what color it was.
My husband insisted that he should know what color it was because he was the one who took the bottom outside to clean out occasionally and who lifted the big thing into the back of our truck when we'd go on trips and take Miranda with us.
We finally gave up in frustration----each still KNOWING we were the ones who were right!
A few days later I was at our daughter and son-in-law's house while they were gone.
I was helping one of our granddaughters do dishes after we had all had lunch together.
I gazed absent-mindedly out the window above the sink and what did I see?
I saw our dog carrier/kennel sitting in their back yard.
And guess what color it was?
The top is grayish beige and the bottom is charcoal.
I began to laugh!
We were both right.
From the perspective of one who cleaned the top and opened the door,
and the other who lifted it up from the bottom
it made perfect sense.
I told my husband that night. He laughed.
I think we were glad we were both right.
I think...


Do you remember, perhaps  from your school days, a poem about
six blind men who come together to decide what an elephant is like?
The men each "see" the animal from different perspectives coming to totally different conclusions
about what an elephant is like.
The poem ends this way:

And so these men of  Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong.
Though each was partly in the right,
and all were in the wrong!

The Blind Men and the Elephant
by
John Godfrey Saxe
1816-1887

Though it was found that we were each partly in the right,
because of our differing perspectives.
Our arguing about it was wrong.

Pick your battles carefully.
Some things just aren't important.
Trivial details don't usually matter.
We are so easily caught up in side issues that waste our time. 

We take our eyes off what is truly important.
And we enjoy being right.

Just a thought........
Kathi~