I've realized that no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, there is no way to really see through someone else's eyes. This is simply because no matter what you have your eyes. Everything that has ever happened in your life, anything you've ever been exposed to, your family, culture, basically your life makes it impossible for you to see exactly what people mean when they speak. In no way does this mean that we shouldn't try. If you have the option of hearing someone else's story, I'd highly recommend you make time for it.
When I was sixteen, I got the chance to hear a fraction of my mom's story. It's funny because before this event I had never really thought, I mean actively thought, about my mom's story. I had lived with my mom my entire life, seen her practically every single day, and I was still surprised by some of the things she told me. You'd think that by living with people you'd automatically know at least most of their story, but in most situations that's not the case. Sometimes it seems to me that we really don't know anything. It's not our faults. It just kinda happens that way sometimes.
As Meredith Rode puts it in The Hunt for Democracy: The Lion's Perspective, we have to deal with "the difficulty of not knowing where our ignorance lies" (22). Without asking questions, we put ourselves in the position to be victimized. But how are we supposed to know that we should ask questions when we are never told that there may be a different answer than what we've always been told? In school we learn that there are right answers and there are wrong answers, but don't worry because there are no stupid questions. It's funny though because we are told there are no stupid questions but the fact that we put the words "stupid" and "questions" right next to each other automatically makes us second guess our questions. I'm not sure if this is completely intentional, but it seems to me that a better way to get this point by would be to say something more along the lines of "every question has value." Or something like that. Rather than endlessly hearing the phrase "stupid questions," "stupid questions," "stupid questions."
Hearing from different points of view helps to show the big picture. As if there were a smaller picture. There is no "smaller picture"; only one that is lacking the depth of perspective. It's sad because we are not just given the opportunities to see from different perspectives. We are forced to fight for them if we wish to see them at all. Many times it is discouraged because people want to get a certain point by. I agree with Rode when she says, "I prefer recognizing our differences and appreciating them, not denying their existence" (22). The bigger problems start when these people who wish to only have their points heard are given power. When these people get that power over the minds of children, there is no reason for them to ask about other points of view. Most will accept being spoonfed this information that they don't anything about simply because they have no reason to question it. It sucks, but it happens.
The funny thing about power is that even little things can have a lot of power. In A People's History of the United States Howard Zinn says "the little things that people do multiply and connect at some point in history at a point that you can't even predict. And then important changes take place" (85). Little things do make a difference. Every question has value. You might as well ask it.
"You never know when what you say or do is going to be the thing that people remember"
-Brooke Griffin
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