Perceptual Reality - The Beginning

Perceptual Reality – The Beginning

I first put those two words together sometime in the 7th or 8th grade. At that age I found excitement and enjoyment when things didn’t always go according to the boring predictable pattern outlined by stress burdened adults. As an example, if we were to get a flat tire on the way to school, and end up missing first period, I would have counted that as a good thing. I enjoyed changing tires, not that is was something I did regularly, but that’s exactly why I did like it, because it was something out of the ordinary. To me, a flat tire was an opportunity to do something cool, an adventure, like something out of a book or a movie. A flat tire would have found me anxious and ready to jump out of the car and help, enjoying the whole experience. Why? Because that’s the way I perceived it, so that’s the way it was, at least to me.

Most people, however, view a flat tire as something to be dreaded rather than anticipated, because to them it’s viewed as a major pain, and undesirable, laborious task and something likely to ruin their day, whereas, for me it would have likely been the highlight of the day. The same event was viewed with completely opposite emotions. “Why?” I asked myself. And that’s when I first put the idea together that not everybody views the same thing the same way. That’s when perceptual reality was born.

The idea of perceptual reality has come to entirely dominate my view on the world. The idea has grown from ridiculous examples about tires to very real and serious matters of life.

Your thoughts? Do you find this idea useless or valuable? Does it even matter or is it just a waste of time to thing about these things?