Perspective

My dad taught me a great lesson once at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.  It was a wonderful place full of aging buildings and old-fashioned zoo charm.  The Lion House.  The Bird House.  The Snake House.  I’m not sure all the animals felt that way.  Or PETA.

We were in the new (at the time) Great Ape House.  Dad had worked for several years with Marlin Perkins, Director of the Lincoln Park Zoo in the early 1950s, on the “Zoo Parade” television show.

As we were watching a family of chimpanzees in a large, dirty cage, Dad was telling me about the difference between monkeys and apes.  He asked if I had any questions, and I said: “Why is that monkey so ugly?”.

My dad turned to me with a thoughtful expression on his face and said, “What do you think you look like to him?”

That was impactful.  In three seconds, he changed my whole perspective on life.  Looking at something from the other person’s perspective.  Wow.

And here’s a little joke I made up, with this viewpoint in mind:

A proud new father worm was looking in the hospital nursery window remarking to his worm buddies about his newborn worm son: “Oh thank heavens…he doesn’t have any fingers and toes.”