A friend brought the dessert for dinner — individual slices of key lime pie packaged in a box. As I ate mine, I remarked on how tart it was — so tart that I did not want to finish it, so I gave it to the person who had remarked that he didn’t think the pie was tart at all. Once he took a bite, he changed his tune. “Wow, yours really is tart,” he said. “Much tarter than mine.”
It was yet another example of how we all experience different realities. He did not consider that because his pie was not excessively flavorful that mine could be. My pie must be the same as your pie, and my worldview must be the same as your worldview, right?
Whether you are comparing the taste of your dessert, the merits of current issues, or an opinion about the weather, leave space for others to have a different perspective than you do. Curiosity provides the grace we need to harmoniously coexist.
