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#P0V #87R #PL4N3L3550N5  
Point-of-view shapes our world. What matters. What doesn't. What we hear when people speak.
@MML4UR3N @mmlauren @mml4ur3n @authormmlauren
#1M45K1N9 Given the individual nature of experience, why are we so convinced that our way is the one way that everyone must go?

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She was born again—I was mid-transformation. We were two servants of a higher truth on a quest to spread the message of love, giving and self-responsibility. There was just one problem.

Jesus.

Lessons on a plane.

I was on a flight returning from Hawaii last year—first time in Hawaii—first cruise—first time my family had been on vacation together in years. I was on this amazing high. Warm and fuzzy with the spirit of #aloha.

A couple of months previous to the trip, I'd started writing a kind of in-my-average-American-opinion commentary on the state of the world. I wasn't entirely certain where it was headed. I kept bumping up against the issue of perspective.

In writer speak, #P0V is the point of view of the character you are experiencing a story through. The point of #P0V is to put the reader in the shoes of the main character so that you understand who they are and what makes them tick.

The issue with #P0V is we are most often trapped in our own to the degree that we don’t even see that it’s a trap. We cling to it like a security blanket, peering out through the microscopic holes, imagining we see clearly.

I was seated next to a couple who'd been kind enough to give me the window, so I could take pictures on the flight out. #aloha They were a bit of a dichotomy, heavily tattooed, toting more heavily notated bibles.

They spent the majority of their time working with at risk youth, providing them with basic care, structure, guidance, connection, faith and community. They were committed to creating their same transformation in others.

My #P0V is worlds away. I was raised Catholic in an LDS state, and born with a Buddhist, New Age spirit. I believe that every journey, however unique, has a single destination point from which we cannot hide, run or stray.

The woman in particular felt like a kindred spirit. I expressed my agreement with their message in my language. Yet, we continually circled back to the same sticking point. We could not agree on one thing. Jesus.

To be saved, I had to say Jesus is the way and the light. We could not agree that my saying love, or any concept of love in the divine sense, was the same. Two of the most accepting concepts on earth butting heads over language.

The way we think is the way it really is—the way others think is somehow mistaken. It is the intention of the language within the context of the speaker where meaning is created. You say po-ta-to, I say po-tah-to. Nothing is off.

 The individual nature of discovery, spirituality—of life—cannot be stepped over. Yet, we often do skip right over it. To varying degrees, what isn't us is suspect. We are free to judge because, let's face it, we all think we know better.

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