1) You always look for the best in people and you don't actually see who they are, you see what they could be.  I'm sure you would agree that one of the most frustrating things is placing attributes on someone where they don't actually exist.
2) You only see the best in yourself.  I believe, at least for myself, that you focus on the best things about yourself and not what needs to improve.  And sometimes, I believe, you attach attributes to yourself that you wish were there.


Back to the original thought....
The shift for me was an issue of perspective.  When the reality is presented in a certain format you accept it because its all your given.  It would be very much like if you were watching Elmo, Big Bird and Kermit on TV.  You could only see one angle of the action.  For all you knew, that bird, frog and red monster were walking, talking and hugging.  Their actions genuine, their movements real.

But if you were given a chance to be on the set and see what was really happening....

You would see it was just a show and what you thought was real, was only an act.  But there's no way you would've known unless you were able to change the perspective of what you've seen.

On the flip side, a shift in perspective can you show how incredible someone is and the beauty you've failed to see can be overwhelming.


  

The flakes fell violently.  Plunging their white bodies to the earth with the intensity of a kamikaze pilot.  Their sole intent to blanket whatever they struck.  Washing the world white.  Their suicide granting salvation.

In a crowded room

 

I have determined that people don’t like each other very much.  That or they have no desire to widen the circle of existence that they know.

 

For example:

 

I sat in a crowded room waiting to be seated at one of the few breakfast joints in Springfield where you can get a salmon omelet.  I sat on a bench with room for two more people to sit.  And although there were exactly two people standing beside them, neither one of them sat down.

 

Granted I didn’t invite them to sit down but its not like I planted a flag that said this bench is claimed in the name of Josh.

 

Now here is an interesting thing to ponder.  I was sitting on the far left of the bench leaving ample room for anyone who wanted to sit and people felt it was either improper for them to invade my bench bubble or for me to be allowed in theirs.

 

Imagine if I had simply spread myself out on that bench.  I mean just laying out there as comfortable could be as I waited to be taken to a table.  I would have been as happy as a clam.  But imagine what you would think if you saw a guy sprawled out on a bench by himself as you stood their standing.

 

What a jerk…who does this guy think he is?  I mean here I am standing to wait and he’s just relaxing like a bum on a sidewalk.  Why doesn’t he sit to the far left so others can sit down and wait.

 

We as people are a very odd and twisted thing.

 

Ive been reading Donald Miller’s Searching for God Knows What and in chapter 2 of the book, the same book I was reading while on the bench, that the fear of intimacy with others in our generation is the very thing that can damage or limit our relationship with God.

 

Imagine…if you wouldn’t sit next to a perfectly harmless guy on a bench because you don’t want him to enter your bubble; how much are you really letting God into your bench bubble.

 

Think about that the next time your sitting, or laying down, on a public bench.

Now while I realize that the elections are over, said and done; I thought it would be nice to share this.

                        I will say I picked a grand time to become a reporter, right on the eve of the Presidential election.  This allowed me to meet people that I otherwise would have only seen on CNN or Fox News.

One of the gentlemen I got to meet on the campaign trail was an incredible man named Charlie Plumb.  Now that name might not mean very much to you but it meant a lot to the Arizona Senator who goes by the name of John McCain.

Retired Navy captain Charlie Plumb spent more than five years in a North Vietnamese prison with Senator McCain.
                                                 

Now while many of you are all to aware of John McCain's service to his country, I doubt to many are aware of the sacrifices he made as a P.O.W.  I recognize that some didn't support McCain in the election but that cannot take away from the character and leadership he showed in the face of death while being held prisoner by the Vietcong.



Here is Charlie Plumb's account of what happened in that camp.


It was my privilege to meet and interview Mr. Plumb when he came to Springfield, Mo.  He was a very kind man with a very resilient spirit.

Man that really sounds like the title of an episode of Scrubs.