To Each Their Own - How Perspective Alters Things

"It was an ok read. Drags on towards the end"

"Really enjoyed the whole story. Very well written."

These are two reviews of the same book. The exact same story, with the exact same characters and storyline, just read by two different people. Yet their opinions about this book are very different. Why? How can multiple people experience the exact same thing and have different responses? This doesn't just happen with books, shows, or events, it happens with EVERY SINGLE experience a person has. Look at women for instance. I am using women as an example as we are so often the most negatively judged. Surprisingly, NOT just by the opposite sex either. You will find women are harder on each other for the most part. Look at how when one woman talks about how horrible their periods are and another woman will either say 'ya they are a bitch' or go the complete opposite way and say 'OMG why are you so dramatic! They suck for a day then they are fine! I mean I use a panty liner after the third day'. First of all, That person is a freak of nature! Seriously, why would you brag about that to someone who just said they have horrible periods? They are having to deal with a shit ton of their own blood for a week, they would care less if they also had to deal with your blood too after they I don't know, stabbed you.

Seriously though, one person's experiences against someone else's experiences are going to vary, even if just a bit. This is because we all have different lives which provide us with different experiences. We will never truly know what those experiences have done to create a bias in someone and therefore we can't truly ever say that we completely understand what they are experiencing. A great example of this is a show some of you may know, The Handmaid's Tale. Have you heard of it? If not, you should go watch it! In this season there is a group of people who LOVE and WORSHIP Serena and her late husband. They think that what Gilead is doing is AMAZING! One woman even tells June (Offred) that she should feel grateful she was able to serve God and carry The Waterford's baby. (If they only knew that it was actually not the Commander's child) So why would she feel this way, even after June and the other Handmaids who escaped murdered Commander Waterford? You would think this would be evidence enough to say 'Hey maybe we should reconsider our take on things.' Nope. These Gilead believers and followers think serving God in this way would be amazing. The complete opposite of how the escaped Handmaids feel.

This comes down to a person's perception of things, which is drawn from their experiences. The Handmaids, well they experienced Hell. No other way to describe it, unless you are either one of the Elite in Gilead or in Canada watching from the sidelines. These individuals are not being raped, tortured, and forced to give up every single bit of freedom. While the Handmaids and Martha's are. So the lovers of Gilead in Canada should simply go and experience it and they will be able to have the same perspective. Right? Wrong. They would still go in with their own bias and experiences. I mean look at Serena, she tried to speak up for the Elite women in Gilead and lost a finger and was shunned out of Gilead, yet she is still devoted to the whole thing.

How does this relate to crafting you are probably wondering. It does. If there is one thing you should know about me by now it is that I will bring anything and everything back to crafting. It is our perception that drives what we enjoy creating and what we would rather pluck our eyes out before creating. It is also our personality (which here is a shocker - is in part driven by our perceptions) that will be a factor in deciding what we charge a customer and how we treat that customer overall.

When I first started crafting with a Cricut, I joined some groups. Mainly in hopes that I could get guidance and advice when I needed it. Keep in mind at this time Facebook did not have the 'post anonymously' option. OMG people were HORRIBLE to each other. I didn't want to EVER ask for help or ideas on how to do something. I am a person who loves to read comments though, I mean you learn so much from them! Like, if a person is nice or is well a person who is possibly having a horrible no good very bad existence of a day. What I learned from the comments of the people who were slamming those asking for help was this, 'Why should I help them when I had to learn everything on my own? You purchase an expensive machine and want everyone to just spoon-feed you the knowledge. We all had to learn through YouTube, so go learn and come back when that doesn't work.' This paraphrased comment was one that was said repeatedly on so many posts. So guess what I did? Yep, I YouTubed everything I have learned thus far and silently watch and learned as others posted and commented. There were some helpful people and it was through reading the comments that I learned most things.

Sometimes people don't even realize they are being harsh to others. 'That was how I was raised and it is just how I know to respond.' Can perceptions be changed even if the experiences they grew up with caused them to be negative or see things in a guarded light? OF COURSE they can! You can change. Everyone can change because again perception is based on your experiences and how you view things.

So just because you hate weeding today doesn't mean you will always hate it.

If right now you don't want to sell things, it doesn't mean you will always feel that way.

If you are a beginner right now and feel lost in a world of terms and ideas that are just too much, you will soon be the one dropping the term 'reverse weeding' around like it is just another way of saying 'Hey'.

Just remember that not everyone thinks like you. Not everyone has the same experiences as you. However EVERYONE has feelings, whether they want to show them or not, they do. The phrase we used to say as kids, 'Sticks and stones can break my bones but names will never hurt me.' is pure and utter bullshit. They do hurt. So unless you are ready to walk in someone's life experiences, past, and present, be kind!

(Even to the person who is driving you nuts and you want to run into one day and ...... well just run into them, be nice!)

Happy Crafting Y'all