Pit or Pity?

I went for a hike on my brother’s farm this past weekend. Right next to the rolling hills of his place is a gravel pit that you can take in from the high point of one of his top fields.  My seven-year-old nephew urged me to make my way over to see the gravel pit because, in his words, it was “beautiful”. 

I was intrigued, and wondered what I would behold when I crested the final knoll to see the gravel pit. After all, it was a gravel pit – piles of gravel and sand, deep holes in the ground, a bit of water collecting in low spots, rock piles and an earth mover parked in the centre. What’s beautiful about that? 

I guess if you are a seven-year-old boy, a gravel pit is a tremendous spectacle of machines working and huge piles of the very same stuff that passes time by the hour in backyard sand boxes. He saw something wonderful where I saw something sort of tragic, realizing that the pit was once a rolling field of wildflowers like I was standing now. 

The trek to view the pit reminded me that we all see things differently and what is beautiful to me I cannot just expect will stir the same emotions in others. As an agency we are taking a deep look at our diversity and how to honour our differences, and it all begins with acknowledging that we are different. And that we all have biases based on our different world views, experiences and culture; in acknowledging that, we can take that further step beyond the hurdles to begin to look at things just a little differently, to appreciate what we may not have noticed and to take a different point of view.  Further, it is in the exploring that we learn, challenge ourselves to try to see what others do, better understand that fresh perspective and appreciate what that other person’s journey. 

All this is not to say that I must now see a sprawling gravel pit in the same way as a young boy fascinated by mighty machines; however I do need to realize that there are different ways to look at almost anything.  With fresh eyes I can appreciate the differences and the perspective my nephew has. Through fresh eyes we can start to see the differing journeys that we are all on, the potential blind spots and the glimmers of unique perspective that can keep on adding richness to the experience for all of us.