Perspective

Perspective is an interesting thing. It's incredibly important in art so that your piece makes sense visually, but it can also be manipulated. Perspective is even more important in life. It gives you the ability to differentiate between what is important and what isn't so important. There's that idea that you have a jar that you put different sized rocks in, and then fill in the cracks with sand. The sand is all the little things in life that frustrate/annoy you, but the rocks are the big things to worry about.

I was visiting my grandma this weekend with my mom. As I've mentioned before, she's 92 and up until the suffering a stroke at the end of July, she lived on her own and took care of herself. Essentially one night she went to bed and everything was fine, then woke up and her whole world had changed. We've got her settled into the other nursing home now though and she's doing much better. But that week back in hospital was a major set back - I really do believe she has suffered a second stroke. The staff at this nursing home though are very much on top of things though and are making her do a lot of therapy even though she whines.

I discovered something Sunday morning though. I went to see her on my own while my mom was doing errands and she was much calmer with just me. She complained a bit, but wasn't whining. As soon as my mom showed up so the two of us could go to church up the street, grandma started whining like crazy. I'd already suspected she's more likely to behave if there's a grandkid there - after all that one weekend in the hospital when things had gone downhill, I was the only one who could get her to eat.

My mom figures I'm good with this sort of thing because I work with kids and I'm going into education as my career. It's very much a career that requires a lot of patience and people skills to be successful. While I'm not perfect, I do seem to have the skill set for it, as I've excelled in past jobs that involve working with kids. I don't put up with bullshit, but I also know when to pick my battles with kids. It's the same sort of thing with older people. They're old. They're set in their ways, etc. You need to know when to pick your battles with them. As you should with every other person you ever meet I realized.

It's something people talk about a lot when it comes to dealing with kids or romantic relationships - picking your battles. Knowing when you let go of something, or when to actually address what's bothering you. But it's the same thing with every other relationship - co-workers, friends, family, etc. You need to know when to get all worked up over something and when to just let it go.

You also need to know how to address something appropriately. Be rational and fight fair as it were. Don't come out all angry at the world and yelling because sometimes all you need to do is say "Hey, you know that thing you do? It really bothers me."

It's an interesting thing, perspective.