Understanding others

We always make the mistake of seeing things only from our perspective. Our interpersonal skills will improve many fold if only we were to put ourselves in someone else's shoes and view the problem through their eyes.......well lens for a fact as this incident illustrates,

Like many photographers before him, Richard Zaltman was visiting remote areas of the world to capture images of people living lives far removed from those in the United States. He always used to view the world through his eyes or more correctly through his camera lens.

One morning, while walking through an isolated village in Bhutan, he suddenly got the idea of turning his camera over to the locals to see what they would consider significant enough to show others about themselves.

Later, when he looked at all their pictures, he noticed that most of the photos cut off people’s feet.

“At first, I thought the villagers had just aimed wrong,” Zaltman says. “But it turns out that being barefoot is a sign of poverty. Even though everyone was barefoot, people wanted to hide that - -which is an important message to see.”

You never really know someone until you see the choices he or she makes.