Tag: perspective

I like a morning walk. Most days I get up with the sunrise or just before and start the day with a brisk walk. My regular walking track is along parts of the Cooks River. It’s not the cleanest of systems but there’s something to be gained from walking along its paths, listening to the wind blow through the trees, nodding hello to fellow walkers and generally doing something mentally and physically out in the real world, before the digital demands of the day start. It never involves whales.

Recently I ran a blog workshop that happened to be near the coast. Rather than battle peak hour traffic that would take me across various road work and contentious public transport constructions I dashed out early to take my morning walk along the Maroubra headland.

It was bracing at first, surprisingly cold given the recent heat wave, but the freshness of the air and the cool temperature was a welcome relief my body gladly accepted.

As I walked along the headland, down the hill and onto the promenade I began to notice a few groups of people engaged in intense exercise. Strangely their harsh body movements jarred with their intense stares out to sea. Rather than focusing on their exercise, they were entranced in a collective mass distraction.

Naturally, their stares out to sea piqued my interest and I turned to the ocean to see a whale fin breakwater.

A sense of wonder and joy took over me, and I too was now a gawking spectator, disregarding my original purpose, for the sake of spotting a giant sea mammal.

What is it about spotting whales or other sea creatures that so fascinates us? Is it no more than their majestic beauty? They are so fundamentally different to us, yet we share biological systems and life patterns inherent to all mammals. Regardless of how much I might try, that whale will never understand my perspective.

There is both frustration and freedom in that idea. If I were to try and read my blog to him or her, I wouldn’t get too far in communicating my perspective. Conversely, the whale is in no way concerned about what fills my head, what makes my world tick. While enjoying the spectacle and filtering my thoughts through my own narrow view, I realise it places no demands on me.

I breathe in the fresh sea air and feel grateful for this unexpected whale of a time. Simply by swimming by and flipping a tail through the air, this beautiful creature, knowing or unknowingly, has reminded me that there is much in the world that is beyond our understanding and control. Sometimes the best thing to do is just watch and appreciate how lucky we are to be in the right place at the right time.

Evan Shapiro
Author – Road to Nowhere

My psyche has been pummelled by decades of cross-genre input and frankly, I like what the wash and spin cycle of my brain does with it all. The trick is getting readers to understand what they are in for when they read my work. It’s a trick I haven’t learned particularly well, but I’m well-adjusted to going with the creative outpouring. It’s hardly surprising that after a lifetime of perceptions that one becomes attuned to filtering information in certain ways. I grew up watching a lot of TV. Pretty much anything science fiction, British comedy, American 70s and 80s sitcoms, Austrian comedy and drama, classic Hollywood Saturday afternoon movies and Sunday night indie films. Then there were video games, books of course, and an early exposure to theatre. Also, naturally, there was and still is the significant influence of the people around me, my environment and socio-economic situation. It’s no wonder my fiction writing is a potpourri of all these influences.

Writing is no different to any other form of interaction with the world. My mind filters information according to all the other information that has gone through it previously. Sometimes what comes out is the result of patterned responses and other times there are surprises. But fundamentally the soupy conglomeration of my experience directs my thoughts.

We all have our influences, we all have our life experiences that affect the way we see the world, the way we interact, the way we create, the way we make decisions. I take pleasure in observing the differences between the multitude of sources that alter my perception. Sometimes observation gives me the opportunity to step away from my own skewed view and other times the desire to revel in it becomes consuming.

When you hold your lens to the world, do you consider how it affects what you see?

Evan Shapiro
Author – Road To Nowhere

When I saw this photo of my friend Hector and his mother Irma I couldn’t help but burst into a broad smile. Knowing them as I do and having stood around the Boudha Stupa myself, I had a strong visceral sense of the moment, of the feeling in the air, of what would be passing between these two.

I remember when Hector first went to Nepal in 2008. We were in regular contact over what became a life changing trip for him. What evolved from those experiences has become life changing for many including myself. One individual who was seeking to see reality, seeking to see through the multiple social constructs of life, discovered compassion for others as a key means to cut through his own challenges. And he hasn’t stopped taking people along on that journey. He tirelessly points out for others what has become a clear path for himself, with a desire not to leave anyone behind.

Now 8 years later and Hector is back in Nepal. This time he has brought along his mother and other members of his immediate family. What an amazing moment to stand and look out at the palpable history of Kathmandu, the history of spiritual exploration and share it with someone you have explored life with so inextricably.

While all photos capture a moment, this one for me, captures how powerful some moments can be. I think of the many lives Hector has affected and how that has flowed from simple moments of understanding. And I’ve been thinking about other people in my life who have taken the time to share and give. What flows from all moments is an opportunity. You can take a negative and push that out into the world, or you can see a better way and bring people along with you, invite them to see a different perspective.

I’m very proud of my friend Hector and what has grown from his moments of insight. Equally I’m grateful to the many people like him in my life that share their time, ideas and energy. Moments are wonderfully complex, intangible and fleeting things, but they are where we exist. Seeing Hector and Irma exist in this moment is a joy and I can’t wait to see what flows from it.

Evan Shapiro
Author – Road To Nowhere

Photo: Gina De La Chesnaye

No one believes that I’m a Moonatic. That might be in part because it’s not a real word. You see I feel I needed to make up a word that does not imply insanity in the same way Lunatic does, but still gives rise (moonrise even) to the possibility of a periodic Luna influence of mild proportions.

If it is so mild, why then does it even matter? Well, it matters to me because for years there have been times when I suddenly feel out of kilter. On the surface, everything is going well, but a disquieting unease permeates my spirit. A number of sleepless nights follow and I get tired and cranky. Then, I look out the window and there she is. La Bella Luna. What light from yonder window breaks, it is the moon and suddenly the feeling is much easier to manage knowing it has once again coincided with the illuminating celestial presence of a piece of rock in space.

That is the extent of my research. It’s circumstantial, but it’s mine. My theory for why the moon exerts a force upon me, other Moonatics, Lunatics and ovulation cycles, is that we, as so well put by an alien life-form in the Star Trek Next Generation episode ‘Home Soil’, are ‘bags of mostly water’. That’s right we are somewhere between 60-80% water. No one questions that the moon has influence over the Earth’s tidal patterns, creating highs and lows. Similarly, a Moonatic, such as I, also has a tidal pattern. Sometimes my tide is high, sometimes my tide is low. Again why is this important? Because being aware of something lessens its influence. Realising that we are sometimes subject to our chemistry can also unlock a further understanding. Are we not completely subject to our make up? Isn’t our perception of everything not only skewed by our humanness but also sometimes altered in subjective ways that we are not only unaware of but are unlikely to ever recognise? Something to consider in the light of a full moon perhaps.

Until otherwise disproven, I’ll stick to my assumption that I’m well and truly a Moonatic – that the moon asserts its influence, for good or ill, over my water-based constitution. Anyone else?

Evan Shapiro
Author – Road To Nowhere

‘Looking at the world through rose coloured glasses’ is an expression that has fascinated me since I was a child. I had a baby sitter who actually had rose coloured glasses and said she preferred to see the world through them than the harsh reality she saw without them. She let me try them on once and I found it amusing to flick them up and down, comparing my reality to her rose tinted version.

The phrase implies a world view that is ignorant to the truth, but could it be seen another way? There isn’t anything inherently wrong with wanting to see things better or perhaps just differently to the way you naturally perceive things. Putting a rose tint on everything isn’t any different from filtering all you perceive through your own mind and body. ‘You’ are what you have to perceive the world. Your mind and body are essentially your mechanisms for perception. Your world view and your self view completely influence how you see things. So, consciously adding a tint is quite possibly more aware than simply going through life taking in information and not recognising how you are altering information as it comes in.

In science this is called the ‘observer effect’, that by the act of observation, the observer actually changes what is being witnessed. If we have low self-esteem, poor self awareness then pretty much everything you think and do will be altered by that ‘reality’.

There have been times in my life where I have felt embarrassed to say what I think, too shy or concerned about what other people might think about my opinion. To people who know me now this must seem ridiculous. Yet I’m aware of how these patterns can corrupt my experience of the world. Over time, through self examination, I have learned to be accepting of myself and this has unlocked a degree of confidence. But I know people who are consumed by what they perceive as their failings. If perhaps they realised they could remove that filter and choose a different way to look at things who knows how their observations of life might change the world before them.

Evan Shapiro
www.amazon.com/author/evanshapiro