When I walk across Central Park each morning, there are certain places where the lush presence of trees stops me in my tracks, and I look up into a canopy of green.  One morning, as I stopped to look up, I noticed the rustling of some leaves high overhead.  Since there was no wind, and none of the other leaves were moving, I waited to see who or what was there.  After a few moments, a squirrel appeared.  He or she was so high up, I began to wonder about how the world looks from up there.  That got me to thinking about perspectives and points of view, and of how different the world appears to a squirrel or bird up in a tree compared to me, a human on the ground.  I also thought about Cooper, a cat whose humans have given a camera, by way of putting it around his neck.  As Cooper wanders around his neighborhood, the camera takes photographs of the world from his point of view.  They are quite captivating and offer truly beautiful images of a cat’s perspective on things.

So often, when we humans encounter a different point of view, we experience fear, anger, or find ourselves in an argument, fighting to prove that our take on things is the correct one.  Thinking about how different Cooper’s perspective on the physical world is from mine, and thinking about how things look from the squirrel’s point of view high up in the tree, I found myself wondering about the ways in which we might become more aware of how we respond when we encounter someone with a decidedly different take on a given situation or experience – and what options might be available other than fear and/or anger.

And so, for this week’s experiment, I invite you to notice what happens in you when you encounter someone with a different perspective than yours – someone who sees the world differently on issues you may take for granted.  Then, notice if there’s any room inside for curiosity, any desire to understand this other point of view.  This can be hard to find, so please be gentle with yourself and don’t demand any particular response on your part.  The experiment offers a way to become more familiar with your automatic responses to difference, and to offer a possibility of generating some new, perhaps more comfortable options.

I’ve written before about the difference between fear and curiosity.  Fear constricts and curiosity opens.  You might notice, for example, if you think of something you fear right now, how your body may become tense, or pull into itself.  If you then shift to something that elicits your curiosity, you may notice that your body relaxes and feels more open, moving toward the experience rather than recoiling from it.  With curiosity, it might be possible to become interested in the other person’s point of view without having to be right or wrong, without having to convince each other.  Instead, it might become a conversation motivated by a wish to understand how the other person arrived at that particular perspective.

As with all the experiments, this one is no more than an invitation to become more conscious of how you move through the world.  The gift is that, once we are conscious of the responses we have, and the qualities they bring into our lives, we then have the possibility of making new choices and engaging our daily lives in new ways.