The City of Angels: And that’s our life, flying high and never looking back.

Tonight I busted out the old bamboo mat, an early purchase for lazy days in the park, to do crunches on my bedroom floor. Today has been a busy 24 hours- it’s down to the wire in the office, getting ready for the big AIDS conference in Korea commencing this Friday. The poster presentation I’ve been working on for weeks is finally finished, standing a solid six feet tall, sans typos and line breaks. Now it’s down to sticking quotes on condoms, proofing final handouts and cutting and pasting handmade posters for Mercy’s information booth. Between preparing for the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) and helping the kids with their homework, there was no time for a run today, which brought me to my bamboo mat on the floor.

Lying stretched on my back, along side my bed I realized I’ve never laid on the floor before. My room was totally transformed. Instead of seeing books and empty water bottles and other assorted clutter, I saw a bare, off-white ceiling and my dirty Mitsubishi fan.

My fan rotates slow and steady in a circular motion, like a person stretching their neck before a yoga class and the blades form a gray cloud hovering in its cage. If you stare too long, it begins to operate like a pendulum’s swing, inducing a relaxed-to-the-point-of-numbness sensation. Have you ever gotten on your back and gazed aimlessly at a fan strapped to your ceiling? It’s funny how a slight shift in perspective can change the way everything looks. My room of clutter and chaos suddenly transformed into a meditation chamber; a place of order, rhythm and hypnosis.

I’ve found one of the hardest things to do is to earnestly put yourself in someone else’s position; to try and look at the world through their eyes.

I’ve also found there is so much to gain and so much value in it, if you can do it.

This reminded me of Jennie Brown’s presentation on “Peace Education” this year at SIT. She told a story of an experiment in peace education in Palestine and Israel. Trained teachers went into the schools and worked with children from both sides of the conflict. Towards the end of the session both groups were asked to write a letter from the perspective of a child on the other side of the wall. If I remember correctly, one group was unable to put themselves in their peer’s position, while the other group not only completed the assignment, but recognized the importance of such a difficult task. Jennie – if you see this, will you pass along the name of the project? I will post more information soon, as it was a very interesting take on perspective and peace education with children.

Whether it’s lying on your floor, or trying to see the other view in a conflict, there is always value in a shift of perspective. Maybe you sit on the other side of the café today… maybe you walk on the other side of the road … or maybe you practice stretching your mind to places unknown.