The break to celebrate Christmas and welcome a new year with family and friends is a special time for me and likely you. I anxiously await it and truly appreciate it. It gives me time to read some fiction, organize pictures, go for long walks, reflect on life, gain some perspective, update my 25 year plan and most importantly spend a great deal of time with loved family members.

One of the novels I read was written by Dan Brown, it was entitled Origin. In organizing my photos I found a shot I had taken earlier in the year of one of our Muskoka chairs reflecting off the water at Horn Lake. I immediately drew a connection between these two disparate items.

The refection of the chair on the water reminded me that I needed to watch what perspective I was taking on things. Am I looking at things from only my perspective? Is there another perspective? The reflection in the water reminds that things can look different depending on one’s perspective.

In Origin, Robert Langdon, the main character of the novel states that “everyone has a different version of the truth”. He conducts an illustration. Is the following true or false?

I + XI = X

Of course it’s false but what if we turned it upside down? Now there’s a different perspective.

X = I + IX

Wow, now it’s true. My first New Year’s resolution is to try to see things from other peoples’ perspective. Happy New Year.