Humanity struggles with the complacency of a limited perspective. We are consistently ignorant of the psychological aspect of the passing world around us. One of the issues is being our differences in perspective.
Every one has a story.
Yet in our minds we limit the people around us to mere props in our act. They have no real significance except to serve as supporting characters in our story. We don’t need to know who they are, what they think about, things they would die for. They are meaningless right?
That would be true, if it were true. But everyone else is the exact same way. Making you a prop in someone else’s act just as much as you delegate that role to them. I guess it is a bit of a protective measure. We use less energy, avoid potentially more emotional distress, and can continue on our own journey without much extra thought needed.
But it forces a trivial change in our perspective. We get limited by our own senses without us realizing what we lose. The world becomes flat and we live without depth to our actions. Other people have no underlying value as their existence has minimal impact to our story, obviously the most important one.
But that is how people fall between the cracks.
I was one of those people not too long ago. My father passed away from cancer and my natural personality left me with a limited support group. And even of the support group that I had few understood what it was like to lose a parent at such a young age. But I managed. At least for a little while.
Unfortunately when I needed more support the most was when I found out about how little people really care, or even notice, the characters around them. So caught up in their own story that the people around them needing help still remained props that were only there to enhance their own story.
I eventually forced my way in out of necessity and I think I startled them by it. This limited perspective goes two ways though. Not only were they not expecting me, but I was so caught up in my needs I was blind to how much I had hurt them in the process. And that’s where the split began.
I thought I had it figured out. Oh how ignorant I was to my own limitations that by through the mental exercise I was able to break through my own senses and could predict what other people were experiencing. And it almost destroyed me.
People are more than you think.
That’s the important bit. I made the mistake of thinking people were less than what they were by forcing them into a box in my own head. A lot of people make the mistake of not recognizing that others are more than just surrounding humans but people with their own experiences and stories influencing their own world.
So next time you want to judge or react or ignore someone, take a moment, and think about what their story might be like in this moment.
You are in control of how your character is written by other people.
Toby Breckenridge 