It's All About Perspective

We've been sampling quite a few wines during this Australian holiday ("vacation" to us Yanks) and it's so evident to me that it's all about perspective.

The first time (only time, actualy) that I took a wine appreciation class, we were taught the cardinal rule of wine drinking: if you like it, drink it. Nothing else really matters.

If you like a certain $7 bottle of wine better than a certain $87 bottle of wine, by all means drink the $7 bottle. Wine appreciation helps you ascertain what you like, helps you choose a wine to complement a meal, and helps you appreciate the scents, the sights, the flavors of a wine.

My favorite wine may taste awful to you. And vice-versa. It's all about perspective.

Kind of like life, ay?

We've met all sorts of people during these 3 weeks we've been on holiday. And it's so interesting to me, to slisten to what people like to talk about. Some people think certain things are expensive, when to me, they seem quite reasonable.

Some things are beautiful to me, when to someone who lives here, they may not even notice it because they drive right by the same thing 4 times a day.

While we were in Sydney, we were commenting how wonderful the public transportation is. The response we got from Sydneysiders was "Really? Hmmm." They don't thin they have good transport services at all. They'd probably flip out if they rode a train in New York. Or a bus in New Orleans.

Another thing I like about Perth is hte distinct absence of American accents. In Sydney, you meet all sorts of folks from the US and UK. Here, you pretty much only find Aussies (and we've actually met a few "transplants" from South Africa.

Why is that?

Unfortunately, Americans who venture over to Australia pretty much stick to the East Coast (Sydney, Gold Coast, Cairns, etc.) or the Southeast (MElbourne, Canberra, etc).

It seems as though Americans who travel to Australia seem to think that PErth is "too far" to go.

Excuse me?

I spent 14 hours on a plane from San Francisco to Sydney, so what's another 4.5 hours to Perth? But like I said, it's all about perspective.

Just today, someone emailed me and said they thought my products were priced too high. I find that fascinating, since someone ELSE asked me why my teleclasses were priced so low. And let's not even discuss which countries drive on the "right" side of the road, vs. the "wrong" side of the road.

One of our tour guides this trip said, "The whole point in tasting wine is to see what you like, and everybody likes something different. If we didn't, there would only be 1 wine that everyone would drink, and that would get really boring."

Indeed. Well said.

In fact, there's really nothing at all wrong with having our own perspectives. Conflict arises when we attempt to prove that OUR perspective is the "right" one.

Now that's the sticky wicket.

Hmmm, all this talk about wine is making me thirsty. Hey, I'm just doing my part to support growth of the wine industry in Australia. We've purchased about 14 bottles since we arrived here, and we've only drunk 4, and we can only take 3 home. So you do the math, I gotta go start evaluating my perspective on reds and whites.

QoD: How tolerant are you of other people's perspectives? Are you more likely to ask a lot of questions to see wehre the other person is coming from, or are you more likely to defend your own perspective? What would happen if you started to open up more and more to listen to the perspectives of others? It doesn't mean you have to agree (for example, if you told me that white zinfandel was the best wine in the entire world, I could listen to your perspective, even though there's no way in H-E-double-hockey-sticks that I'd agree with you).

Go for it. You just might learn something!