Pieces of a Puzzle

How easily we tend to forget to see people in their entirety. Some of us never did this in the first place, but for the rest who know that we are the sum of our parts, we should be ashamed. Let’s take a second to refresh our psyche and spark our perceptions.

I walk into a McDonalds to order lunch. Approaching the front counter, I notice two employees arguing in the back about someone “not doing what they’re told”. In all honesty, the first thing I think to myself is: “this is a non-issue” “what petty shit is this?” My fault is simple – I am stuck in the present without pondering the big picture of Ms. Sally who’s serving me a burger. For that, I apologize.

Now that I’m “just another guy” on the street, I seem to admire a facet of the Marine Corps that I’m without any longer. In uniform, one wears their professional history on their shirt in the form of awards and badges/rank insignia. You can’t determine personal history from that, but in a way you can tell where a person has been or guess at some of the things that person has gone through. As a “normal” person, I have no such tell-tale sign of who I am. For instance, someone who passes me in the street will never know that I’m a bronze-star recipient or that I saved a lot of lives in Saudi Arabia. They might not care, but they never have the chance to make that decision because they’ll never see the big picture of me.

My challenge to myself and to you, my readers, is to take a second to perceive people in the broader context of their entire life up until that moment you encounter them. You’ll find that you’ll be able to understand them better and in fact, people will start to amaze you because we all have our unique life stories. That is what makes us so interesting.

Until next time…