Paradox, Paradigm Shifts, and Pattern Interrupts.
Huh?

Since the day we stepped into our first schoolroom, we have come to associate September with new beginnings: new pencils and notebooks, new lunchboxes, new teachers, new things to learn. This September we will look at how we find new perspective.

Do you remember the first time you "saw something in a new light"—when you first realized that something you thought was so, wasn't? The classic tale of the six blind men and the elephant we learned as children was for many of us our introduction to the concept that our perspective is sometimes very limited. Each man (for those of you who did not learn this at your mother's knee) had hold of a different part of the elephant: the ears, the trunk, the side, the knee, the tusk, and the tail; all reached radically different conclusions about the nature of the beast.
The poem by John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887) based on the Indian fable about the blind men and the elephant ends with these lines:Moral: So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!

I challenge you: do you really think you are seeing the whole elephant? The pieces in this issue are stories of women who have discovered there is more to the elephant than was meeting their eye...

A slight shift in perspective can have a radical impact on our lives. Here are a few tales of fresh perspective to warm you up for the next 38 pages:

A joke going around the Internet: A man is driving down a narrow, winding road. A woman is driving down the same road from the opposite direction. As they pass each other, the woman leans out the window and yells “PIG!!”
The man immediately leans out his window and yells, “BITCH!!”
They each continue on their way, and as the man rounds the next curve he crashes into a huge pig in the middle of the road.
IF ONLY MEN WOULD LISTEN.

~and~

Through the pitch-black night, the captain sees a light dead ahead on a collision course with his ship. He sends a signal:
“Change your course ten degrees east.”
The light signals back: “Change yours, ten degrees west.”
Angry, the captain sends: “I’m a Navy captain! Change your course, sir!”
“I’m a seaman, second class,” comes the reply. “Change your course, sir.”
Now the captain is furious. “I’m a battleship! I’m not changing course!”
There’s one last reply. “I’m a lighthouse. Your call.”
[There were 214 hits on the Internet for this and a variety of versions....we are not sure who to credit!]

Have you ever changed course when you discovered what you thought was so, wasn't? And what about being disillusioned—sounds very unpleasant, doesn't it? But really, who needs illusions? Wouldn't it be better to know the true nature of the beast? I have it on good authority that the true nature of the beast...is beauty.

I'll leave you with this story of perhaps one of the most radical and instant changes in perspective imaginable. In 1985, I visited a friend of mine who was a finalist for Teacher in Space. I went to see him at his school, shortly before the final announcement. He had made it successfully through each elimination round; his students were beside themselves about the prospect of their teacher going up in the shuttle. His wife and children were excited and proud beyond description—they all felt he would be chosen. His whole being was invested in this opportunity. When Christa McAullife's name was announced, he was devastated—an understandable reaction, as this opportunity was unlike few others we have in life.

At 8:39 a.m. on January 28, 1986, my friend, his students, his wife and children together watched the launch of the Challenger shuttle with an intensity of regret and disappointment few of us are likely to ever experience.

Approximately 73 seconds later, they experienced a radical shift in perspective.