The Truth: It All Depends On Your Point Of View

How someone perceives reality is based primarily on the life experiences through which he’s gone. Each event, whether common or unique to others of the species, helps form not only a unique point of view about most issues, but mentally defines the personal reality of his daily existence, as well.

Take this picture, for example. If I asked you, “What are those things in the carton?” I’m sure you’d say “eggs,” as would anyone else who had seen one before. But if I asked, “What is an egg?” that’s when a disparity of answers would arise, and each person’s explanation would be a reflection of his personal experiences with the white, oval object.

An unmarried hen, for example, might see it as a daily biological curse which leaves the slit below her tail rather sore. A married hen, on the other hand, might consider an egg as noble evidence of her motherly ability to propagate the species. However, if the hen in question happened to be unhappily married, she might look at that same egg as a cheap excuse for her philandering rooster husband to have nonconsensual sex with her every ten days or so.

A baby chick inside an egg might see it as a quiet and secure avian condominium, protection from the realities of a harsh and intimidating outside world. A chick that just hatched, however, might look back and consider that egg a small, restrictive cell from which it was necessary to escape by forcefully knocking a hole through the wall after twenty-one days of incarceration.

A retailer might see an egg as one of his best selling items in the dairy section. A senior citizen who just dropped and broke a dozen of them in Isle 6, however, might think they’re one more sign of approaching Alzheimer’s. Of course, the young clerk that has to clean up the mess, sees eggs (and clumsy old people) as something that complicates his life, and need not exist in the first place.

A political activist might consider an egg a volatile projectile he can throw at a corrupt civil servant in sign of protest. The targeted politician, however… (especially if he’s from Northern California), might consider that same egg a weapon of mass destruction, and try to legislate it out of existence. At the very least, he’d certainly mandate they all be hard boiled and inserted in every child’s McDonald’s Happy Meal instead of plastic toys.

The Easter Bunny probably sees eggs as his once-a-year chance to bask in the popular spotlight and reclaim his yearly twenty-four hours of fame. After all, the rest of the year he’s just a furry, long-eared nuisance that poops black pellets that babies think are raisins. Children, on the other hand, see those same eggs as a once-a-year joy… objects of edible art, dyed and decorated to be displayed in baskets brimming with fake cellophane grass, and marshmallow chicks lying amid jelly bean rubble.

A nutritionist might look at eggs and see an almost perfect food source, to be eaten or used as a healthy ingredient in the things we cook. A zealous vegan nutritionist, however, might say that eggs are orbs of plaque-filled, animal-derived sludge, which only serve to clog your arteries and make you die.

Humpty Dumpty deemed an egg a fine reflection of himself. Conversely, the King’s men saw the same object as a pile of gooey fragments that, since they couldn’t be put together again, had to be cleaned up and hauled to the royal dump.

A lexophile might look at an egg as creative inspiration. To him the former Humpty Dumpty might be an “eggsostentialist,” or when full of himself, an “eggomaniac.” His wife, Mrs. Dumpty, might work as an “eggzotic” dancer at the King’s palace, and have a voluptuous body due to “eggcessive eggsersize.” A poor speller, on the other hand, might just see it as an “eg.”

Obviously, the old cliché, “It is what it is,” may only be true to the person making the evaluation. Perhaps that’s what makes the world such an interesting place…… and so very screwed up!