Through New Eyes

Last week I had the joy of a visit from a very dear college friend. I also had the pleasure of meeting her friend, who was visiting the States for the first time from Austria. In an attempt to show her as much of the northeast as possible, we trekked into Boston to do a little exploring. We had a great afternoon just spending time together in the city, but it proved to be so much more than that for me. It turned out to be an excellent lesson in perspective. ;)

One site we visited in the city was the Holocaust Memorial near Fanueil Hall. It's always been a favorite of mine in Boston, and I didn't think much of it as we approached. However, as I was walking through the memorial, I started to see it in new eyes: if I were from Austria, how would I see this memorial? Would anything strike a chord in me as I read the names of places that were so much closer to my home? I began to wonder how my new friend had learned about the Holocaust and what she thought of the memorial.

After we finished at the memorial, my friend asked her how she had learned about the Holocaust in Austria. I was fascinated when she told us that they didn't focus on it more than another topic in history...growing up outside of Boston, we rarely made it past the Revolutionary War in any of my history classes. :) I guess I had just assumed that they would have studied it more in depth due to their geographical proximity to where it had taken place. After a brief but interesting conversation, my friend asked us to clarify how long World War II lasted - which as a former history major, I figured it was a seemingly basic question. Without thinking, I said 4 years, and at the same time, our friend from Austria said 6 years. We looked at each other a bit puzzled for a moment, then realized our "error." We were both correct, but she was speaking from a European point of view, and I was speaking from an American point of view. It really made me pause and think critically about how I perceive things, and how very American my perspective is about world events.

It's the little moments like these that speak volumes to me about perspective...how important it is for us to have these small conversations with others that have far-reaching effects on our perspective.