Christian Living

Paradox and perspective

by GLENN PEASE
01/07/22
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Para means contrary and doxa means opinion, and so a paradox deals with contrary opinions or ideas which are seemingly so opposite they cannot both be true, but which are, in fact, both true. They sound contradictory but the really compliment each other. In paradox two opposite and contradictory ideas can be shown to be two parts of a greater whole larger than either of them alone. Two men can be looking at a shield from each side of it, and one says it is gold and the other that it is a silver shield. Both know they are right for they are looking at it right in front of their face. They can argue for ever and never convince the other to change their view. They can only resolve their conflict by going to the other side and seeing that a shield can be gold on one side and silver on the other. Both were right, but both were wrong too, because they only saw part of the whole truth about the shield.

The false assumption in many conflicts is that if one side is certain they are right, any contrary idea must be wrong. This is false because it is possible for both to be right even though they seem contradictory. Paradox says that opposite perspectives can both be right. For example, when Durand, the Frenchman, visited London he saw such places as Waterloo station and Trafalgar square. He said to his wife, “These English are really odd, they seem to have a mania for naming places after defeats.” From his perspective as a Frenchman these were defeats, but Waterloo and Trafalgar were great victories for the English. He failed to recognize that a battle can be both a defeat and a victory, just as every sports event is both a win and a loss, for their are always two sides. We need to recognize the same thing can be seen from more than one perspective.

Take a snowstorm as an illustration. A family of 4 can see it from 4 different perspectives. The mother sees the snow as a source of beauty as she looks out of her picture window and sees her evergreens beautified with the white fluffy stuff. The father sees it as a nuisance as he has to shovel the drive way and be late for work because of the traffic mess. The son sees it as a source of income because the neighbors will pay him to shovel for them. The little girl sees it as a source of fun, for now she can use the new sled she got for her birthday. What could be more futile than a debate to determine which of them is right? Three of them find pleasure, and only one finds pain in the snow, and so can the issue be decided by majority vote? This would not change the fact that the father still has to suffer while the other three enjoy it. We need to face it. It is a paradox. A snowfall is both pleasure and pain. It is both beautiful and a nuisance. You cannot get everybody on the same side, for their are two sides, and both are real and legitimate.

When Mark Twain visited Whistler in his studio he started to touch a certain painting. Whistler cried out, “Don’t touch that, it isn’t dry yet!” “I don’t mind,” said Twain, “I have gloves on.” They were on two different channels, and Mark Twain missed the point completely. He was not being sensitive to the perspective of Whistler who was concerned about his painting being ruined, and not about getting paint on Twain’s finger. Paul in Phil. 2:4 wrote, “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” In other words, recognize their are other perspectives than your own, and you need to be sensitive to them or you will be a self-centered person.

Life is full of paradoxes. If you look at a stick in the water you see it as crooked. You know it is a straight stick, and yet it is bent to your vision. You are certain it is straight and yet you cannot see it as straight in the water. No matter how clearly you have it explained why it looks bent you cannot see it straight. Mentally you know it is, but visually you experience it as not straight. And so you have a paradox of a straight stick that is crooked because both are real at the same time.

This reality can help a person escape prejudice. He may have been taught that other races are inferior to his, and so he cannot help but see them that way. But if he recognizes the reality of paradox, he can learn that what he sees is like that crooked stick. It is an illusion created by circumstance, but it is not objective reality. Other races are proven to be equal with his, and so he may have feeling left from his training that makes him see others in a bent way, but he can also know that what he feels is not the truth, and thereby overcome the subjective feeling and chose to act in accord with objective truth.

We have to fight the tendency constantly of seeing reality only from our perspective. The poet gives an example.

When offspring roll upon the floor,
And kick their heels in rage,
They either need a spanking or
Their going through a stage,
Depending, with distinction fine,
On whether they are yours or mine.

We tend to see through eyes which favor ourselves at the expense of others. Identical behavior on our part is seen as a virtue, which in others we see as a vice. We are thrifty, but they are stingy. We have firm convictions, but they are stubborn as a mule. We are cautious, but they are slow pokes. We are courteous, but the other guy is a brown noser. We are zealous, but the other guy is a fanatic. We see ourselves as virtuous in doing the same things that other are doing, but which we call vices.

Men are forever debating whether we should be right wing or left wing, when it should be conspicuous to everyone that God never made a bird yet with only one wing. They would never get off the ground if he did. It does not have to be one or the other, but we need the whole bird, and the perspectives of both the conservative mind and the liberal mind to get the whole picture. Anyone who is always just one or the other is narrow minded and does not deal with the real world. Dr. Billy Graham said that he was a conservative theologically, and a liberal socially. Can you be both a liberal and a conservative? Why not? It is no more unreasonable than the fact that a day is made up of both daytime and nighttime. They are opposites, but they are both real and a part of the whole. Man is not a saint or a sinner, but a saint and a sinner. He is both even though they are opposites. If you are going to deal with the whole man you need to see the reality of this paradox. Pascal saw it and said, “Man is the glory and scum of the universe.”