Perspectives

You and your friend are given a task:
to draw an object.

You sit at a round table
with pen and paper.
An object stands
at the center of the table.

The object can be turned, flipped, rotated.
It has more sides than a single glance can capture.
The task is not easy - but neither is it impossible.

You draw.
Your drawings differ.
No one gets upset.
You both understand that drawings can look different.

And even if it is never said aloud,
both of you know that neither drawing
is the object itself.

The truth,
the object - is one.
But it can be portrayed
in nearly infinite forms
depending on perspective -
without any of them being the whole truth.

In the same way,
your opinion is a perspective.
And in fact, more than that:
your perception,
your life,
one of many ways
the shadow of something higher
can be cast.

We are shadows of a higher reality,
and what is projected is us -
shadows in color
dancing through existence
through the prism of time.

Neither right nor wrong.

And yet we fight so easily over small things.
We correct and condemn,
judge perspectives as false, idiotic.
We point fingers, exclude those who think differently -
and proclaim our own view as the only correct one.

Perhaps we are not fighting for truth,
but for our place in the story.
And if we are all characters in the same tale,
drawn by the same hand -
then who exactly is the enemy?

To truly understand how absurd this is,
we can replace the object with a banana.

You drew it curving to the right.
Your friend drew it curving to the left.
You see an even yellow color.
Your friend sees brown spots.

Soon religions are formed:
The Society of the Right-Curved.
Friends of the Left Banana.
The Order of the Spotless.

Those most certain of themselves
confidently declare
that the banana does not even exist.

Time passes.
The cycles continue as they always have.
People die in the name of the banana.
Children on both sides are taught to hate the opposing curve.

Altars of gold bananas are raised.
And soon a priesthood emerges.
Sacred texts are written -
with exact instructions
for how the banana may be depicted.

Reproduction without a license is heresy.
Tax-free donations pour in -
for licensed banana illustrations,
theological banana conferences,
and state-approved banana manuals.

They print the banana on the flag.
Children learn to draw it in schoolbooks.
The banana becomes morality, identity, and currency.

And The Highest Paradox watches
in silent presence,
children playing serious games,
where sticks become swords
and roles become reality.

Because when you think about
all there is to understand -
we are merely children.

Not because we are stupid,
but because we have not yet grown
into understanding.

We are not finished.

We are like drunken sailors aboard the ship Existence -
believing we navigate with precision
using our alcohol-soaked, broken compass.

Our maneuvers are taken with utmost seriousness,
and we claim to know our position -
even though the sky has no stars,
the map has been washed overboard,
and the anchor cannot reach the bottom.

Every course correction is made
with focused and grave expressions.

But in reality,
we are searching for a black cat
in a pitch-black room -
and the cat is not even there.

We point outward,
but what we see
is the inside of ourselves.

Reflections and fragments
of the same puzzle.
Different expressions of the same consciousness.

As if reality itself
does not know what it is
until someone looks.

A truth in superposition,
where wave collapses into particle -
and observation becomes creation.

Your seeing becomes form.
Your belief - a manifestation.

And without that understanding,
the understanding of the coin’s two sides -
we are all, right now,
more or less extremists.

And yet there are those who still try.

They know the picture will never be perfect -
but they draw anyway.

They know others will judge,
that someone will always see another curve
or another color.

But they do not draw to be right -
they draw to understand.

And sometimes something strange happens:
They stop looking at the banana -
and begin seeing each other.

The closest we come to truth
is understanding that no one owns it.

Truth is not a perspective,
but the sum of them all.

Do not underestimate the power of perspective.
Even the lowest can judge the highest -
and the highest can miss the smallest.

Every point of view has its blind spot.
A consciousness may be different,
but to the one carrying it,
it is the entire world.

When you judge someone else’s truth -
you are judging a part of yourself.