Updating One’s Viewpoints
Last week I visited my “old family” in Germany. It was the first time since the passing of my father 1.5 years ago, and things had changed quite a lot: My brother and one of my sisters had inherited the house of my parents and done quite some renovation work in the meantime.
I knew of these changes, but hadn’t seen it. It was a strange experience, being in a very familiar surrounding, where I had grown up, but which was no longer the same surrounding: The inner memory pictures and the outer didn’t match. Partly the scenery was the same, partly it had changed a lot: walls had disappeared, new colours, doors and furniture had appeared. Also it now was the house of my brother and sister. Pictures and feelings were overlapping, causing irritations and new experiences. Also the relations to the relatives were being partly re-defined.
My brother and sister who had mainly initiated or done the changes himself had lived the transition. For me it was a sudden change. It reminded me of the many situations where you live for a while with a concept in mind, which once was formed with an actual perception, but which hadn’t been updated since. When there is a new snapshot of reality, there is the chance of adapting the concepts. How many concepts in us need an update or don’t fit with reality? The new year gives a good chance of updating one’s view of the world or at least of one’s major viewpoints.
Transition – sunset behind bushes, last Saturday
