552 - What is your perspective?

When my children were about 4 and 6 years old, I created a "fish pond" in a big plastic tub on our small balcony.

One morning, as I was lingering in bed, Philip and Alena had gone to check on their fish.

All I heard was, "Oh No, Alena, your fish is dead."

I jumped out of bed, ready to see tears as I met them coming into the house.

There she was, holding her dead fish in her little hand.

With a sorrowful voice she said, "Look, mommy, my fish is dead...".

Then, without skipping a beat, she cheerfully exclaimed "Now we can eat him!"

I wasn't expecting that response, but I smiled and explained that we can not eat goldfish.

She looked at the fish discouragingly, then dumped it into the garbage. She went on to play without giving it further thought.

The concept of death and the fear surrounding it were unknown to her.

Her perspective was simple. If it has no further use, get rid of it.

I sat there wondering how simple life could be if we saw things from a 4-year-old's eyes.

Wouldn't it be grand if we could see things as they are without all of the added drama?

Of course, I'm not talking about devastating loss of a loved one. Hopefully, you understand where I'm going with this.

In today's world, people tend to react in extremes from overdramatic outbursts to a heartless lack of compassion.

Television, violent video games, and virtual realities have created all kinds of emotional disorders in children yet we all but ignore it's happening.

The workplace is full of people who grew up with an overload of extreme and unrealistic violence.

Some are desensitized while others overreact to the slightest incident.

It's all a matter of perspectives.

When we look life situations straight in the eye, without the drama attached, we make better decisions.

Meanwhile, my daughter went from flopping a dead gold fish into the garbage to fly fishing where she releases the fish back into the water, alive and well.

How much smoother would your week go if unnecessary drama was left out of it?