I got new glasses this week. My prescription didn't change, but I wanted new frames that fit better and didn't keep getting in the way. When I picked them up, I expected to see exactly the same. For the most part, that was true; however the new frames brought some nuance and a slight change in depth perception, which I adapted to quickly. The world had not changed, my prescription had not changed, but the frame around it did.

I've been turning that over for a couple days, wondering how something can stay the same but feel different because of the way it's held in place.

Think about a conference with a medical examiner, a physicist, and a theologian on a panel. Someone asks each of them to answer the question, "What is life and what is death?"

The medical examiner would answer with a specific cessation of bodily function in the lungs, heart, or brain. His/her job is to explicitly define what stopped and how it stopped to aid in criminal investigations and to help the family in their grief.

The physicist would talk about entropy and how life is a system that imports energy and works against disorder. Death occurs when the system no longer imports energy and the structure dissolves back into the universe.

The theologian might say something about life and death not being opposites, but two sides of the same coin. Life is the embodiment of spiritual energy and death is the process of disembodiment of the spirit and its return to its Source.

Their answers vary greatly, and their emphases widely differ, yet none of them are incorrect. They are looking at different sides of the question. This exercise emphasizes the importance of a broad perspective, and illustrates the danger in distilling absolute "fact" from one perspective.

Just like the panelists in the above exercise, we also approach life from differing angles. There's so much anger in our world, so much judgment without context, and so many incorrect assumptions of others' intentions. The shocking truth is that when we sit with another viewpoint with curiosity and ask questions to deepen our understanding, we often find a shared humanity, much like our own, just nuanced from a different life experience... like different frames holding the same reality.

My wish for you this week, Reader, is that the next time you bump up against another's viewpoint that's different from your own, get curious. Seek to understand their viewpoint through the lens of their experience. You likely won't agree, and the world would be pretty boring if we all did, but the exercise might broaden your own perspective. Then ask yourself, "What other perspectives might I seek?" The purpose isn't to change your mind or theirs, but to broaden your view of what existence in this world looks like walking in the shoes of another. That's the fiLLLed life.

Live a fiLLLed life, Melissa