It All Depends on Your Point of View

Yes, right— it’s a joke and the point is that dogs are color blind.  But then, from a dog’s point of view, people are smell blind and have lousy hearing. The rich panoply of aromas that your dog sniffs on you when you walk in the door tell him more than you can possibly imagine (and more than all the loving words you pour out about your day as you greet him and play with him).

Roses, Violets, People, Dogs

 I’ve spent a great deal of my life moving around from place to place. I went to nine different schools before I got to college, so I got to experience many diferent points of view on the world.  I’ve been around the block a few times and been lucky enough to live in many parts of the United States and also in a few foreign lands. What that taught me is that while people are pretty much the same everywhere— culture, history and personal experience really make a big difference.  In parts of Asia dogs are food.  In America they are pets.  In America we eat cows.  In India they are holy.  Climate, language, age, education, history— everything affects how we perceive the world around us and all the creatures with whom we share that world.

It’s really hard to walk a mile in anybody else’s shoes and really easy to make a judgement or get hurt feelings or even hold a grudge or go to war.   But it really, in most cases, is just a matter of perception and whether roses are red or grey  all depends on whether you are a dog or a human. 

I think it’s worth remembering that to some creatures Roses are red and violets are blue and to others they are grey.  It all depends on your point of view.