The Importance of Perspective

Pan-o-ram-a[pan-uh-ram-uh]

–noun
1. an unobstructed and wide view of an extensive area in all directions.

2. an extended pictorial representation or a cyclorama of a landscape or other scene, often exhibited a part at a time and made to pass continuously before the spectators.

Titles can be vexing, especially the blog sort. I mean, how are you supposed to summarize your whole purpose for writing in one measly sentence? Let me tell you, it's difficult. After hours of looking through dictionaries and countless sites on search engines, I finally found the perfect title. "Panorama": concise and to the point, yet broad enough to allow me to express my opinions on a multitude of topics. My blog will hopefully succeed in doing exactly what the title expresses. I hope to be able to present interesting perspectives on culture, politics, and travel. Through this blog, I hope to be able to widen my point and view and look at situations from different perceptions. “People only see what they are prepared to see”, say’s Ralph Waldo Emerson. Now that I reflect on this outlook truly is everything. Your opinions and the way you look at things make you who you are. For example, Samuel Johnson the eighteenth century essayist frequently wrote about “the insufficiency of human enjoyments”. In Douglas Hunt’s essay “Introduction: About Essays and Essayists, it is revealed that Samuel Johnson was half-blind, scarred from infancy by skin disease, and was poor and nearly friendless. Deprived from childhood, it is no surprise that this essayist has a pessimistic and gloomy way of seeing the world. In fact, Johnson says that The Great Pyramids are not representative of the beauty and magnificent architecture of Egypt, but rather the toil and suffering of the slaves lying stone upon stone to please the Pharaohs. An interesting way of looking at it, a viewpoint I would have never even imagined. Which brings me back to the word panorama, a widened viewpoint. Looking through the eyes of Samuel Johnson I saw one of the Seven Wonders of the World in a completely new light. By no means are people wrong in saying that The Great Pyramids are one of the most dazzling buildings ever made. However, before you become attached to your judgment of something, look at it in a different way. Think of how the slaves who built The Great Pyramids would view it. I am eager to start this blog and hope to accomplish three things:

1.) I want to pick interesting and controversial topics and be able to choose a side to support. However, I also want to be able to view other perspectives on these topics, and hopefully change the way I think.

2.) I hope to improve my writing skills (particularly spelling and grammar as you will find in this entry) and capture the attention of people who happen to stumble upon my blog.

3.) Lastly, I hope to open other readers up to new viewpoints and ways of seeing things. I believe this is beneficial because in order to truly understand a topic, you must grasp both sides of the argument.