Distorted Lens
Being Changing Seeing … Which in turn changes being … Allow me to write an alternate assignment for Step 2 Unit 4. The message sent in that one piece of writing is very important to me, and I just couldn’t let the message slip through me by answering two simple questions.
The title I have given this is Distorted Lens, with the quote “Being Changing Seeing, which in turn changes being”. I got this from a book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. I found this book during a very emotional time for myself in this semester, and it has really touched me. One of the lessons, or principles they were trying to teach was the idea of paradigms. The book defined the word paradigm as a way of looking at something, such as us. If we see ourselves in one way, we will then become that.
I entitled this assignment as Distorted Lens, to represent paradigms. I believe that everyone sees the world through a distorted lens, and that no one person sees something as completely the same as another person. This is because everybody has their own opinions, presumptions and judgments, and even without these factors, some one may not be completely informed, or is misinformed about something, thus his ignorance differentiates his perspective from some one else’s, and who may know something the other person doesn’t. This is a fairly simple idea.
So where am I going with this? Like the piece we were supposed to read, the idea of a paradigm or a distorted lens is also trying to teach that what we see ourselves to be, we will become. But unlike that, I am also going beyond it. I am also stating that if we see some one in one way, then we will treat that person the way we assume they should be treated, thereby eventually influencing that person to become just that.
“When two men meet, there are always six people present. Each man as he sees himself. Each man as he sees the other. And each man as he really is.”
There is an actual story of two classes of young students. One class was supposed to have very bright students and the other class was supposed to have dull ones. So they hired two teachers to teach each class, but something got mixed up, so the teacher who thought he was teaching the bright students was actually teaching the dull students, and vice versa. Later on in the year, the school board had realized that they made a mistake, but instead of telling the teachers, they wanted to see what had happened. So at the end of the year, when the teachers made evaluations of the classes, the students that was really supposed to be the dull ones, had finished with high grade averages and become brighter students. But the students that were really supposed to be the brighter ones had finished with a lower class average and became much duller students. This was because the teachers had made a presumption about the class, and instead of getting to know each student, they went by statistics. So they treated the students how they thought they should be treated, and eventually the teachers’ attitudes towards the students affected them.
So this story isn’t very accurate. The book told it better, I’m just going by what I can remember. But the moral is still the same. You make an assumption about a person, and you start treating that person the way you think they should be treated and they will become that.
This unit is about modern day prophets, who work against injustice. I believe that making assumptions about a person or situation, even with an educated guess is an injustice towards that person. If some one were to tell student that one of their teachers is a difficult person, then that student will go on believing that, and instead of becoming a teacher’s pet, he becomes a pet peeve. The student has denied himself a good relationship with a teacher and possible better marks. He has caused an injustice towards himself.
In the school, students are constantly making presumptions about people they see down the hall. Judging them by what they are wearing, how they talk and walk, whom they hang out with. And not only do they deny themselves a chance to start a good friendship with that person, but he also creates an injustice towards that person, because they can influence others with their opinions on that person and everyone looses.
As in one of the skits during the retreats, rumors was a topic. Rumors are usually started not by ill will, but by assumptions. These ones created by assumptions are the worst ones because they go by unnoticed. No one can find the answer to “why would anyone say that about me”, because nobody had intended to. Instead an innocent mistake of assuming something and telling others who could have also misunderstood you could lead to disaster.
So how do we solve this? By being willing to change what we believe to be true about something or some one. By allowing ourselves to change our perspective, we open our minds, and then we won’t make assumptions. The book of 7 Habits called it a paradigm shift. When what we believe to be true all of a sudden gets distorted or changed.,
“Being Changing Seeing which in turn changes being” refers to a theory or philosophy that a person can be defined by how he sees things, and that sometimes it is necessary to change our perspective on things, so then if how we see things constantly keeps changing, then we ourselves are constantly changing as well.
You are sitting on a subway train, and the man beside you has children with him. The children were acting wild and undisciplined, disturbing the other passengers, but the man is just allowing his children to act this way. Being fed up with the way this man is taking care of his children, you ask him “Are you just going to let your children act like this?”, and the man answers “Oh I’m sorry. After I had told them they’re mother just died in the hospital I didn’t know what else to do with them.”
What just happened there? First you weren’t pleased with the man because you made an assumption that he was an uncaring parent. You did not bother to get to know what the man was thinking or feeling. And when you found out why he was allowing his children to act like so, you became ashamed of yourself and felt sorry that you made a judgment of this man.
The second question we had to answer in the assignment was to make us think whether or not one person can make a difference. Obviously, I believe this is true, and I will give my own reasons why I think so.
In the piece we had to read, the writer would have turned into something different rather than the optimistic self he is now, if it were not for the principal. If it were not for the principal, this man would not have become a teacher, principal or public speaker, thus he could not touch the lives of others the way he has. The piece of writing would not have been included in the unit, and if it weren’t, students working on it would not be able to have been inspired like I have. That principal, whom I haven’t even heard of, has changed us all.
The piece we had to read also stated that we should try our best to be our best so that we can make a difference. I am simply proving, that it is much more possible than you think. Just a few simple acts of love and kindness can change the people around you, and then in turn they will change you, with interest.
