With all the stuff going on in the world today it's hard to turn to the microscopic rather than the macroscopic. When people are revolting and getting shot for their freedoms in Egypt, it's hard to look at one's day to day life in perspective...because too many folks tent to believe proper perspective doesn't include us. It doesn't include the moment we're in the grocery store and feel mild despair over the price of milk, for example.
"Have some perspective" tends to be a truism meant to downplay the significance of the little difficulties one might have from day to day. Put your daily problems into perspective and you'll find, almost universally, that they're insignificant. You will feel shame for thinking your problems were worth even noticing.
Have you ever heard of a fractal? Of course you have. It was a popular scientific concept in the mid 90s. A fractal is pattern repeated at every scale, from huge to tiny.
Fractal: An irregular geometric object that is self-similar to its substructure at any level of refinement.
That is to say, some geometric patterns manifest in the microcosmic scale in a similar way they manifest on a larger scale.
In the sense of a fractal....the smaller the scope of study, the more comprehensive view one can have of the whole.
How does a pattern appear on a huge scale? Well...just look at how it manifests on the small scale. There is your answer.
Sense of perspective.
I believe that a sense of perspective is as likely to be found in the hum drum day to day activities and reactions of a regular person in our society as it is to be found on a larger global scale. It tells us something bigger when one individual talks about something seemingly mundane.
Say,
Did you know that a whole new problem exists in the United States supply chain because of the explosion of food stamp recipients?
It's true.
A friend of mine writes software for warehouses. We were having beers one day when he told me all about new demands on grocery stores.
As of midnight on the last night of each moth, grocery stores are BOMBARDED with shoppers. Why? Because as of midnight on the first night of each month, millions of Americans see their food stamp allotments renewed...so en masse, millions of Americans descend on grocery stores.
It's going to happen again on Tuesday, February 1st. Go to the local grocery store and see what's happening. See how many people are buying massive quantities of beef products for freezing, or massive quantites of pasta, or cereal, or anything.
Any stock clerk at the local grocer could have told anybody that. But it's taken quite some time for that information to move up through corporate management, then to the lobbyists, and then the US Congress.
Waxling. The stock clerk would be known as a waxling, in this case. It's a term my uncle coined for an individual whose influence goes no higher than the first coat of wax on the floor, but who knows as much if not more about the workings of a company than the CEO himself.
I like that term.
Waxling.
It insinuates that the experiences and observations of even the smallest member of a group provides a MORE accurate window to the larger state of things than a supposedly comprehensive birdseye view.
I tend to fall into the cognitive tarpit from time to time of feeling like my personal experiences as a member of this country aren't particularly important. That they're not worth talking about. Or shining light on. That they're insignificant.
But that's not correct at all.
Nobody's experiences in this nation are insignificant. In fact, they're representations of a larger pattern. We're all waxlings here. We don't just KNOW the score, rather we ARE the score.