LIFE LESSONS FROM READING AND WATCHING
Perceptions, Predilections, and Perspectives
Not to mention agendas and aspirations
My parents used to accuse me of having a subject.
Meaning that boy just won’t stop talking.
Which is somewhat ironic, considering — like so many of you here — I was rather a quiet child.
Otherwise known as a reader.
Which, as you so aptly deduce, is the source of most my subjects.
For instance, today.
This morning, I finished reading Nine Black Robes by Joan Biskupic.
(AS AN AMAZON ASSOCIATE I EARN FROM QUALIFYING PURCHASES)
As I’m wont to do, prior to my purchase, I perused the 1-Star reviews, usually the home of trolls. But also a place to starkly contrast readers’ biases.
I was rewarded with this little gem:
Biased! Don’t waste your money on this book since it is a very biased and unreliable account which takes snippets from opinions which confirm her very obvious liberal views.
In the interest of transparency, if not downright full disclosure, I am far left as you can get.
I plopped my money down instantly, if metaphorically.
And now I have a subject.
My subject is not the obvious one: Co-optation of the Supreme Court by evil forces.
My subject is my title: Perceptions, Predilections, and Perspectives — Not to mention Agendas and Aspirations.
Every book has an agenda embedded in its pages.
A University professor once told us it was imperative to discern an author’s agenda as soon as possible. He said this would inform our deeper understanding of the material.
He was right.
Sometimes the agenda is forthright, as in The Nine Black Robes.
Sometimes it is more subtle and requires deep investigation — as with the Justices themselves.
In any case, this admonition or adjuration has proved highly beneficial to me throughout the years.
An unexpected corollary has been the constant light shone on my own agendas and aspirations when writing an article or story.
Like the need, if only by implication, to poke the conservative establishment.
It now behooves me to emphasize a fact.
Timewise, agewise, I am on the far side of my life. This means I have now spent an entire lifetime using my perceptions and my predilections to inform my perspectives.
Something I spoke about in a different vein in my story, Developing A Personal Worldview, which was included in this same publication.
In turn, my perspectives certainly determine my agendas and aspirations.
I don’t see this as a bad thing, nor do I see it as bad in you.
Unless, of course, you belong to the evil side.
And especially if you’ve actually lived a full life.
Otherwise, you’re still in the process of developing your perceptions, predilections, and perspectives.
In other words, you’re forming and relying on opinions.
And that can be a frightful thing.
Not condemning you; just pointing out something for you to consider.
I have my own things to consider.
Like why I’m so adamant about my own perspectives. Why I can be so overbearing and so argumentative when immersed within a subject.
Why my agendas and aspirations inure me to your point of view.
Why sometimes, I act rather like a caveman.
Wanting to club you with my agendas.
Or bully you toward my aspirations.
But only if you’re not as liberal as I am.
