The meaning of perspective is a mental view or prospect. The Cambridge Dictionary defines perspective as a particular way of considering something. It is the framework in which we view the world. I would dare to say that your upbringing has quite a bit to do with your perspective on things.
When you see a person driving a luxury vehicle, the mind perceives that person to have a large bank account and an easy life. When you see a person driving a “beater” vehicle the mind perceives that person not to have any money and life is a struggle. Is this something we have been taught by our parents?
Perception
Where does this notion come from? It must be something that is learned along the way of growing up.
I don’t buy it. I am not buying it. Don’t try to sell it to me.
Got some more Momma wisdom
Growing up a country kid, we did country things. I was pretty sure I was going to be a cattle rancher. Delusional thinking – I know. Those that are cattle ranchers are born into it – I was not. I was a kid raised on a few acres in the country riding a horse with a few cattle in the field. But I had big dreams.
When you are a kid and totally unaware of the reality of life you can dream the big dreams. And I had the big dreams.
When school was out for the summer and each and every holiday from school I would spend my days at the livestock market. I would sit in awe of the men who bid on the cattle. They would be buying hundreds of cattle in a day’s sitting. The trucks they drove were nice. They had starched jeans and wore fancy shirts.
I perceived these men to have money. Just by the image they portrayed. I knew nothing of them or what their bank accounts held. Maybe they paid their dry cleaner bill with a credit card. Possibly they paid the minimum on their credit card balance every month. Maybe they really didn’t have any money.
It is not always how you think it is, perspective.
Every Monday at the market there would be this old guy from our home town. We knew of him and knew he had cattle, but he wasn’t an acquaintance. He was always dirty. And he smelled. And he drove an old “beater” truck. By no means was he pressed and polished and in my young impressionable mind, I never looked his way. In the words of Shania Twain, that doesn’t impress me much.
One Monday morning sitting in the crowd watching the cattle being sold and my idols buying them, my mom points to this old guy and says to me, that guy is a millionaire. She didn’t know anything about him. I didn’t know anything about him. But she could be right.
It is possible that his bank account was bigger than all the people sitting in that room. He didn’t need fancy shirts and starched jeans. His “beater” truck got him where he needed to go. He didn’t need to impress anyone. Even Shania Twain.
The world changed. Momma might have been joking or maybe she was planting a life lesson in me. My perspective changed.
I do not judge people by their “status symbols”. Fancy car, yeah you bought that on credit. You don’t have any money in the bank. This old guy doesn’t have a fancy car, but he has money in the bank.
You can judge a person by their outside, by their starched jeans or their Lexus, BMW or Mercedes. But you can’t see their bank account.
Maybe they don’t have any money. Maybe your perception is skewed.
Mine was. I don’t look at people the same anymore. In the words of Shaina Twain, you don’t impress me much. Ya’ll are all the same.
