A few weeks ago, while walking back up the long hill on North West Marine Drive, I looked for a place to stop, read and reflect. I was hoping for a view of Vancouver's Pacific Spirit Regional Park, the bay and the snow-capped mountains.
Happily, I came upon a solitary bench that offered a lovely sliver view of one snowy peak and a bit of the ocean. I sat for a quiet hour, reading and meditating with my dog-eared copy of Jon Kabat-Zinn's classic, “Wherever You Go, There You Are,” focusing on my slice of view and doing my best to “remain in the moment” and not text my daughter about how she did on the GRE’s.
After an hour, I packed my water bottle and book and resumed the trail up the long winding road. Not 15 yards further, I stopped abruptly. Just past the huge hedge where I had been sitting was a second bench with a panoramic view of the bay, mountain ranges, the park and Vancouver Island to boot!
In my ignorance, I had meditated on ‘perspective’ for an hour with my sliver view, while yards away there was a view to die for!
We read that the disciples struggled with similar efforts to gain perspective, in ignorance at times of Jesus’ identity as the Son of God. But my experience reminded me of several other important features of perspective.
First, perspective is not just about finding the perfect bench from which to view the scene. Perspective is more about learning to look intentionally from wherever we sit, whatever institution we lead, no matter how imperfect; it is about finding the value in our view, no matter what view lies down the road.
For instance, while prison is not the perspective most of us seek, Ken Carder writes that a friend who spent the last 20 years on death row taught him much about excellence in ministry. With a unique and important perspective behind bars, the friend was able to articulate that integrity, consistency and dependability were the most important marks for him of excellence in ministry.
But second, my park bench experience also reminded me that, to quote Augustine of Hippo, “Solviture ambulando,” or “It is solved by walking.” I gained real perspective by continuing my walk up the trail.
The Rev. Melanie Mullen, the downtown missioner at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, explains that her main focus is on getting her 900 parishioners out of the pew and into the community.
It is only by walking out the door of the church that they can practice the “art of neighboring,” engaging residents on the street and asking them what they need. The perspective gained by walking the city streets enables them to practice their faith, by building a better downtown community.
While we often think we can find the best park bench or ideal perspective, in fact we need to move about in order to enrich our work and lives with multiple perspectives.
Multiple perspectives offer us deeper ways to practice our faith. But they also can offer us new solutions to old problems, help us loosen our tight grip, open us to God’s leading and ignite our imaginations. Perhaps summer vacation will provide us all with a slice of needed perspective.
