Imagine yourself in a quaint little old gothic town on the edge of a wilderness. At one time this wilderness was haunted by a magnificent but deadly fire breathing dragon. According to local mythology, a great knight in shining armor came in one day and slew the dragon. The town sprung up where the dragon fell, the center of its own universe surrounded by a foreboding forest.
In the middle of the town great bronze statue was erected of the gallant dragon slaying knight on his horse. The knight wields a mace in his left hand and broad sword in his right. All of the main streets of the town radiate from the statue at the town's center.
The statue was the focus of great worship and great debate. The arguments had become so heated that few, if any, of those living on one side of the stature ever wandered around the statue to observe the various alternate perspectives of their object of worship. In fact, such wanderings were generally forbidden by the preachers of each perspectives. It became sacrilege to merely contemplate walking around to the other side of the statue to see what was there. Heaven wouldn't come to your rescue if you never returned to your home side. Further, there was fear that those who did return would poison the purity of loyal followers with alternate perspectives not in proper alignment with approved holy sacraments.
The crowds on the left side of town were always arguing with those who lived on the right that they looked on the better and stronger side of the statue. And visa versa. "The mace is better than the sword, no the sword, the mace, ..."
Those who looked straight at the horse raised up on its haunches would have little to say to those on either side since it was easy to see from the front of the statue that neither the right or left side was substantially different, and that the front was obviously the most important since that was the direction the horse and rider would go if unfrozen from its bronzed poise.
All three agreed that their perspective was better than the view from the rear of the horse. However, the posterior view was from the most fertile part of town. This is the part of town that I claim as my home. Like many gardeners, I am proud that my home turf is so fertile. It gives me plenty to work with.
It should be mentioned that many things in life would not be so deep in compost if it were not for those who made the droppings by sitting around staring at life from their singular perspective. Like many from the fertile part of town, I don't have any particular need to view the world from any specific side of reality. Most every perspective has some validity according to its position in that reality, and it is pure folly not to recognize and build on that fact.
When one is
discussing any multidimensional issue,
philosophy or object, it should be expected
that there will be more that one valid view of the
object of the discussion. One must not be afraid to run around or visit any
object of discussion to view it from all sides so that one can get a true
understanding of the full scope of the object. This is particularly true
when one is trying to solve a problem related to that object. It is not possible
to acquire a balanced set of knowledge or balanced solution from a single
vantage point, no matter how keen your insight. As always, you've got
to get up and move around a little and learn something of
other's perspectives.